Blood Witch
by Aria6
Summary: Another fantasy AU story! Roxas is the son of a noble and Axel is the pariah of the village for being a blood witch, not to mention having bad blood with Roxas' family. Can they ever be together? And what's Reno doing here? Read and review please!
1. Chapter 1

Roxas was playing by the banks of the river when it happened.

Playing by the banks of the river in the flood season had been a stupid thing to do in the first place, but then, he'd only been a child. His nanny – soon to be fired nanny – had been flirting with some boys and he'd gotten bored and wandered off. The river had looked like fun and the raging current hadn't deterred him a bit.

Until he slid on the mud and ended up in the water. Then he'd suddenly realized the danger when it was far too late. The current dragged him off and then dragged him under, but he managed to scream. That sound likely saved his life.

Roxas was holding his breath and close to panic when hard hands suddenly grabbed him and yanked him up. His head broke the water and he gasped and held on for dear life as the man holding him struggled to make it to shore. There were cries from the riverbank as other people noticed their plight and someone had the presence of mind to run for a rope. The man holding him grabbed the rope and clung to it as the other villagers reeled them in to safety.

"Young Lord!" Roxas found himself pulled out of the arms of his rescuer and only managed a confused glimpse of bright red hair and brilliant green eyes before they were carrying him away.

"Thank you!" He managed to call to the man, coughing on a bit of water. If there was a reply he didn't hear it as several people swept him away.

For the next several weeks Roxas tried to find out the name of the man who saved him. But for some reason no one would tell him. They told him to just forget about it, that it was all over and he was safe, but that wasn't satisfying at all for Roxas. He'd been brought up to thank someone for passing the salt, much less saving his life! He didn't understand why his family would refuse to tell him the man's name and let him thank him properly. Even a lowly beggar would deserve thanks!

It was his sister who finally happened to tell him the truth, although she did not mean it as a kindness. Namine was a fine sister, really, but they still tormented each other as brothers and sisters did. So the truth was said in heat, in the middle of a fight.

"At least I didn't have to get saved by the blood witch!" She snapped after Roxas ridiculed her pictures, and had the momentary satisfaction of seeing her brother's eyes go wide.

"The blood witch?" Roxas echoed, feeling stunned. Everyone knew about the blood witch. Blood witches were a class apart, but not in a good way. In the distant past, the blood witches had ruled the land with magic, using unwilling sacrifices to fuel the darkest of sorcery. Everyone knew the stories of bloody alters, baths of blood and horrible rituals where the victims were devoured… sometimes alive.

But that was the dark side of what could be a gentle magic. The blood witches had been overthrown, but those who had not been cruel had often managed to hold onto their properties for a while. Roxas was uneasily aware that the town's blood witch was the last of his line, a family that had once owned the keep and the village. His great-great-grandfather had taken the keep and much of the land, banishing the small family to an out of the way estate. At first, the blood witch family had done fairly well. They had always been good to the people of the village. But gradually, newcomers had come to the village, bringing a deeper prejudice against the blood witches with them. Opinion had been hardening ever since and now, the blood witches were almost pariahs. Roxas often wondered why the last blood witch stayed, but it was good for the village that he was here, even if they wouldn't admit it. He could cure diseases, keep wounds from festering and ensure the good of the harvest. The villagers muttered about curses but Roxas father, Cloud, stopped it firmly every time he heard it. He was no ignorant fool and knew that without the blood witch life would become far more difficult for everyone. But that didn't mean his family liked the blood witch. They were quite well aware of the fact that they had almost stolen the land, even if it had been on the new King's decree several generations ago. No wonder no one would tell him the man's name!

"Roxas? Oh, I shouldn't have told you that!" Namine was looking horrified with herself as she realized her lapse. Roxas blinked and hastened to reassure her.

"It's okay Nam. I won't tell anyone you told me." Their father wasn't cruel, but he could be very harsh when they disobeyed him. She looked relieved and with the momentum of their spat broken, they went on to other things. But that left the question in his mind. How was he to thank the blood witch? His father had probably already given the man a gift, but Roxas wanted to give his thanks in person.

It was the right thing to do.

* * *

Axel's lips twisted slightly as he looked at the small pile of coins in his hand.

"How did it come to this?" He asked the world, but the world wasn't answering. He wasn't even sure what he was asking. Partly, perhaps, he was asking how his family had come to this. But mostly he thought he was asking how he in particular had ended up this way. As a child and a teenager, Axel had been wild. He'd loved the fire magic more than the blood, although he was amazingly talented in both. He'd pulled pranks, had fun and planned to go to the city when he reached his majority. His elder brother and sister were both planning to stay and keep up the family heritage.

Then tragedy had struck. His family had been attacked by bandits on the way home from a meet… a meet that Axel hadn't been allowed to come to as discipline for his pranks. He could still remember opening the door to see Lord Cloud himself on his doorstep to tell him that his family was gone. Sometimes he wondered if things would have gone differently if he'd been there. The fire magic was much better than blood for fighting. But more likely, there would just have been another corpse.

So the troublemaker had abruptly been forced into the role of man of the house. An achingly empty house, without his mother, brother or sister. Sometimes Axel thought about selling it but he knew his mother would have been horrified by the idea. The house was the last of their holdings they had. It wasn't easy to give up.

Sighing, Axel put away most of the coins into his safe box. It was enchanted with blood magic. The villagers might whisper about curses, and while most of that was garbage, this box was genuinely cursed. If anyone but himself opened it they would live long enough to regret it. Axel frowned, realizing the protection had grown faint and pulled out his knife, cutting his arm for a moment and using the blood to retrace the pattern on the lid. A small drain on his strength and the wards were at full power again. Standing, Axel shook his head, grabbed a basket and headed for the village. There were things he needed to buy.

Cloud had shown up at his door again, and while the occasion had been much nicer than last time, it had still been incredibly awkward. Axel didn't blame the man for being stiff with him. The fact that their families had so much between them was bad enough, but Axel knew Cloud personally. He was much older than he looked and the two had played as children. In addition to that, he'd had a brief summer romance with Cloud's eldest son, Sora. Axel smiled, amused, as he remembered it. It had been nothing but play, really, but Cloud didn't want him anywhere near his younger son. So when the Lord had to come thank him for saving the boy… yes, very awkward. Axel had thought about refusing his reward but the truth was that he needed the money. Things were always a bit tight.

Axel walked calmly through the village, ignoring sidelong glances and murmurs. He'd developed a thick skin a long time ago. He walked into the general store, the doorbell tinkling. The woman behind the counter sneered at him, then put on a bored tone.

"Buying or selling?" She asked, and Axel nodded to her, reaching up to adjust his headband. It was dark blue with yellow daisies on it, but faded from washing. His mother had given it to him as a child to keep his hair out of his face, back when it had been an unruly mess. It was still spiky but he didn't really need the headband anymore, he just wore it out of habit.

"Both." Setting his basket on the table, he extracted the contents. "I've got some apricots, smoked salmon and fever cordials, if you're interested." He knew she would be. The smoked salmon was nothing special but no one else in town had the herb knowledge to make the cordials, much less bring out their properties the way a blood witch could. She grunted, looking his goods over.

"I've no use for the salmon. We've got too much of that and you don't smoke it that well." Axel would have been offended but it was the truth. His smoking job wasn't as professional as some people in the village, so it didn't last as long. "Two copper a cordial and a half silver for the apricots." Axel's eyes narrowed. That was a bad offer.

"A silver for the apricots and six copper each for the cordials." He immediately offered back and she glared. That was inflated. They dickered back and forth for a while before finally settling on four copper a cordial and eight coppers for the apricots. That was low, he could have done better at the Springbanks fair, but that was a two day trip. It just wasn't worth it, not yet anyway. Maybe when he had a lot of things to sell he'd make the trip.

Axel looked through the stores goods, trying to figure out what he wanted and what he could afford. Finally he picked up some bread and eggs, and had to dicker again. He ended up paying too much, but that was life. Shaking his head, he put away the purchases in his basket and began walking back home, lost in his own little world.

Abruptly, something loud and obnoxious yanked him out of it.

"Hey, Axel!" Axel's lips narrowed as he turned slowly to look at the three boys lounging in front of the inn. That was one of the places in town he was emphatically not welcome. "Blood witch! Sacrificed any babies today?" It was afternoon and they were already a bit tipsy, his two friends giggling at the hecklers wit.

"No, I missed my chance when you were a baby. But tell your mom I said hi." Axel replied before walking past. He wasn't worried about them doing anything physical. He'd established that he was dangerous a long time ago.

Getting home, he put away his purchases and glanced around the house with a faint sigh. It was just so empty these days. Axel vaguely thought he should try to find a wife. He could support a family, after a fashion. But he'd have to find someone at the blood witch meetings and so far no one had interested him. Well, except for Effie, but she was married to his cousin, worse luck. Reno had really netted a fine catch there.

Reflecting on the difficulty in getting to know someone through four times per year meets, Axel walked outside to begin tending his garden. It was growing well, not a surprise at all. It would have been a real surprise if it had been doing poorly. Every spring he primed the ground with his own blood as well as the more prosaic business of spreading fertilizer. The land always gave back, answering the call of the blood magic. Unfortunately, the weeds liked the blood magic too. Axel was busy removing them when he became aware of someone calling his name.

"Axel? Blood witch?" It was coming from the front of the house and sounded young and uncertain. Axel frowned, glancing up, then stood brushing the dirt away from his legs. Perhaps someone in the village needed healing.

"I'm here!" He called and walked around the building before stopping in his tracks, staring. "Uh, young Lord." It couldn't be anyone else. The blond hair and blue eyes were unmistakable, and who else would be riding such a high bred, elegant mare? Although it was very odd that the boy was here alone. Axel wondered who would be missing him.

"Hello." Roxas smiled shyly as his horse nudged the dry water trough. Axel frowned at that. "I'm Roxas. I just came to thank you."

"Oh." That was a bit of a surprise and Axel picked up the water bucket beside the trough. "You really didn't have to, Lord Roxas. Your father has already thanked me. Let me get some water for your horse." Roxas glanced at the horse, a touch surprised, then nodded.

"Thank you. Really, I do have to thank you myself. Father should have taken me with him." Roxas sounded a touch peeved at that, and Axel smiled to himself. The boy couldn't be older than twelve but already had the Strife sense of honor. It was almost cute. Axel handled the pump easily and brought back the bucket of water, spilling it into the trough for the horse. "Did you even know who I was, when you jumped into the water?"

"I had no idea. I just heard you scream." Axel said with a small smile. He almost wished it had just been an ordinary child. The villagers seemed to resent him all the more for the favor Cloud had shown him. "I don't mean to be rude, young Lord, but won't your family be missing you?" Roxas looked crestfallen… he'd wanted to learn a bit more about the blood witch… but nodded.

"They will be soon. I put the slip on my tutor." Roxas admitted. "Well, thank you again. And I'll be back someday, when I have more time." Axel blinked at that, wondering if Roxas was serious. Cloud would hate it if he was, but after a moment's reflection Axel decided he didn't care.

"Anytime you want, young Lord." Roxas paused as he was about to mount his horse.

"Please, call me Roxas." Axel's smile widened at that.

"Roxas." And he watched the boy ride away, musing idly about the way the sun lit golden spikes.

* * *

As the years passed, Roxas almost forgot about the blood witch. Almost, but not quite. Every time he spotted Axel in the village he remembered his promise. Not just that, he noticed how… ageless the blood witch seemed to be. If he hadn't known better, he would have thought he was only nineteen. But Roxas knew for a fact that Axel was at least Cloud's age. It was strange.

For several years, Roxas found it almost impossible to slip away from his tutors and nannies for any length of time. But as he entered his teenage years, thing changed. He no longer needed a nanny and he was allowed to go more places by himself, without any attendants if he chose. Never outside the boundaries of the village and estates, of course. The roads could be dangerous. But it was easy to go visit Axel.

The first time he went to go see the blood witch, he was surprised to hear a raucous song as he pulled his horse to a stop outside the house. It sounded like a Christmas song but… the lyrics weren't right. At all.

_I feel my pecker tingling, balls are jingling too!_

_Come on and tell me whether I can link them together with you._

_I need a hot sweet mammi to slip my salami into,_

_I must be overeager because even your beaver will do!_

"Ewww." It was set to the tune of jingle bells, and only getting worse. Briefly Roxas considered leaving immediately or asking Axel to teach him the lyrics. Although if he dared sing it, he'd be asking for his mother and father to wash his mouth out with soap. Roxas finally decided to ignore it and tied up the horse before going to the back of the house.

Axel was hard at work weeding his garden and Roxas stared, amazed. The garden was big, very big. Axel didn't bother to grow grain, it would have taken too much work for one man. Instead, the garden was full of vegetables for canning and eating, as well as an amazing number of fruit trees. It was an orchard, really, and Roxas looked at the apricots longingly. The apples looked under ripe and hard, but he could see full fruits on the apricot trees.

"Axel?" Roxas called hesitantly, and the blood witch looked up, surprised. Roxas smiled as he saw Axel was still wearing his blue and yellow headband. It was probably handy for keeping the sweat out of his eyes, although it wouldn't protect him from the sun much.

"Roxas!" Axel was surprised but oddly pleased. It had been almost two years and he'd assumed Roxas forgotten about his words that day. "It's been a while. Would you like an apricot?"

"Please." Roxas said immediately. The Strife family had their own orchards but they only grew apples. Axel had a tremendous variety of things. Axel searched the trees for some really ripe apricots, and finally picked two of them, passing one to his guest. Roxas closed his eyes in pleasure at the heady taste of the fresh picked fruit. "Thank you." Axel grinned, amused.

"You've got good manners, kid." Roxas bristled a little. He wasn't a child anymore! "So is there anything I can do for you or did you just want to talk to me?" Axel smiled as Roxas blushed, looking down.

"Just talk to you, if that's okay?" Roxas felt a little embarrassed by it, but he was curious about blood witches. After Namine had told him who had saved him, Roxas had realized he knew next to nothing factual about the blood witches and their magic. The only things in the library about it were hysterical stories about the old Blood Kings. If half of what they said was true, Roxas didn't think the Blood Kings would have been overthrown. Axel seemed to sense what he was thinking and smiled, gesturing carelessly.

"Want to see a bit of magic?" Roxas' eyes widened and Axel laughed. "It will be more boring than you think." No doubt Roxas was dreaming of explosions and mystical clouds of smoke. The blonde gave him a dirty look.

"I'm not a child, Axel. I know the best magic is subtle." That was something his father had mentioned on many occasions, particularly when someone derided the usefulness of the blood witches.

"Yes, I suppose you would know." Axel said to himself and Roxas looked at him curiously, but he didn't elaborate as he led the boy to the edges of the garden. "See the curse markers?" He tapped a peg that had been driven into the ground, and Roxas looked at it dubiously. There were many pegs like it, spaced out equally and painted and carved into odd, animal like images. They were hung with little wooden disks that seemed to be covered in something black and flaking. Roxas blinked as Axel pulled out his belt knife, nicking himself and catching the blood with his finger, using it to paint the disks. "They repel animals and insects who would eat my fruits and vegetables. The also have an effect on people, although that's more subtle." Axel drew his eyebrows down, concentrating, and the blood went black. A red light briefly flashed over the peg, and then it was nothing but a wooden peg again. Roxas felt vaguely impressed. He knew from his tutors lectures how much of a crop could be lost to animals, particularly for things like fruits. And the damage insects could do wasn't to be thought on.

"Could you do that for the rest of the village?" He asked, interested. Axel laughed and shook his head.

"Ah, Roxas, I'd die if I tried to handle that much!" Axel's smile was gentle as he looked at the blonde. "The power for this has to come from somewhere, and that place is me. My body fat, to be precise." Roxas looked the redhead over, a bit confused.

"But you're not fat at all." He certainly didn't have much fat to loose. Axel grinned.

"I know. The curse of my life. Fortunately, the magic in my blood is potent so I can manage with that for most things. But my powers would be greater if I could put on a real coating of fat." Roxas stared, wide-eyed at the thought as Axel sighed. "I'm hoping my metabolism will slow down with age." Blood witches often found it was easier to lay on the pounds as they got older.

"I hope you don't." Roxas said before he thought, then blushed. He hesitated a moment, embarrassed, then continued. "You look great the way you are." Axel's green eyes seemed to glow as he smiled, and Roxas had to fight not to stare.

"Why thank you. But the point is, it would kill me to try to lay these wards on all the village fields. Once you use up body fat you have to take the power from other places, like muscle, bone, organs…" Axel shrugged as Roxas swallowed. That sounded bad. The redhead led him along the edges of the garden, and Roxas could see how it tired him as he worked on each curse peg. By the end of it Axel was looking a touch exhausted. "Can I interest you in something to drink?"

"Please." As they walked up to the house Axel frowned, spotting the horse out front. The mare had shade but no water.

"Roxas, you really need to remember to put out water for the horse." Axel was sure Roxas didn't mean to be cruel to the horse, he just usually had grooms to take care of that sort of thing. But it was still hard on the mare. Roxas winced.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Let me get that." Roxas took the bucket before Axel could, and the redhead watched as he filled it and put out the water for the horse. She immediately started drinking it but Axel didn't think she was in any real distress.

"No worries." Axel said as he opened the door to the house. He'd picked that phrase up from Effie, it was one of her favorite expressions. Axel grinned as he thought of Reno's wild wife. She was always experimenting with the blood magic, with little care for the dangers. "Hm…" Axel poured them both some small beer. It was a bit flat but still good, and Roxas drank it willingly as Axel brought out some biscuits and some cold venison for them to eat. Roxas eyed it curiously but then remembered that Axel owned the land. He had every right to hunt on it. Cloud could hunt here too, but no one else without risking being caught by his father's foresters. Axel's family had made that arrangement with the Strife's generations ago. "So what's it like, having Cloud for a dad and Aerith for a mom? I've always wondered." He'd asked Sora that too, a long time ago, but the brunette had refused to answer. Axel wasn't sure why, since Roxas didn't seem at all put out by the question.

"Oh, it's great! They're the best parents ever." He confided in Axel, who nodded and nibbled on a biscuit. He wasn't really hungry but knew he should eat after working that much blood magic. "Aerith is always showing me things and Cloud is always teaching me."

"Really?" Axel wasn't sure at all what to think of that. Why had Sora been so closed off about his family if that was the case? Sora was still away at university but Axel sometimes wondered if he'd ever be back. Not that it was really his business. "I heard you have a sister?"

"Oh, Namine. She's going to be an artist." Axel listened with a smile as Roxas told him all about his sister. From the way he talked about her, he really loved her even if she drove him insane sometimes. "Axel, I was wondering. Why do you have tattoos on your face?" Roxas asked with disarming directness, startling a laugh out of the redhead.

"Oh, that's a blood witch thing." Axel smiled as he glanced into a mirror, seeing the tattoos again. He could remember how proud he'd been when he'd gotten them at that meet in the summer. It had been a mark of adulthood, although his mother had begged to differ. "All blood witch men have them, although the size and shape can vary." Reno's tattoos were entirely different from his, reddish lines to the sides of his eyes. "Our women get tats on their butts." Roxas choked on his biscuit, spraying crumbs across the table.

"No! Really?" Axel grinned and nodded.

"Really. They say the reason the men get it on their face is because that hurts like hell and our ancestors were trying to prove how tough they were to impress the girls." Axel shook his head in mock sadness. "Strangely, I've never noticed the girls being really impressed." They were more likely to laugh and point, since the new tattoos made the face puffy and red.

"Women are more sensible then men, mother says." Roxas thought she might be right, too. Namine wouldn't have ended up almost drowning in a spring swollen river. "Axel, what are the meets like?" Roxas had heard of the blood witch meets, but the stories he'd heard were ludicrous. He didn't believe the woman danced naked in the moonlight and let any man have them in a huge orgy.

"You've heard the story about the orgy, have you?" Axel said teasingly and Roxas blushed. "That's why we have to keep the location secret every year… heh. It's just like a fair, Roxas. A lot of mothers swapping recipes and trading stories of babies spitting up, kids playing and men sitting around talking about the harvest over beers." Axel thought about it a moment as Roxas looked rather disappointed. "Well, we do have a few things that are unusual. We talk about the blood magic freely and when night falls, we do dance around the fire. And I'd be lying if I said there was no sex, but it isn't an orgy. The young women who want to get married try to find a man and the women who have a family to help sometimes just try to get pregnant." Roxas looked a touch shocked at that, and Axel wasn't surprised. That was anathema to the way the villagers did things. "We record our family history through the female line, mostly. It's simpler for us."

"Is there ever people at the meet who aren't blood witches?" Roxas asked, wishing that he could see one. Of course, that was a ridiculous thought. Cloud would never let him go. Axel frowned then shrugged.

"Kind of. Husbands and wives are welcome and, well. Being a blood witch is partly culture and partly power. There are people raised in the culture who don't have much power at all." Axel ran a hand through his red spikes thoughtfully. "If you see someone with the facial tattoos who doesn't have red hair, they're either dyeing it or they haven't got much of the blood magic. They could be good with the fire magic, though. That doesn't seem to work the same." Powerful gifts of fire and blood rarely went together. Axel was an exception on that.

"Ah, I see." Roxas found all of this fascinating, but didn't want to take up all of Axel's afternoon, and his family would be expecting him back too. He finished his beer and stood. "I really should be getting back, before father comes to look for me." Axel winced at the thought. He really didn't want to see Cloud on his doorstep again. They'd been friends as children, but that had been a long time ago.

"No worries. Have a nice day, Roxas." Roxas flashed him a brilliant smile and Axel briefly thought about how cute the boy was, then shook it away. Cloud would have a fit if he had another summer romance with one of his sons, and Roxas was too young anyway.

But there would be plenty of summers in the future.


	2. Foxglove and Fevers

The seasons changed and Roxas spent more time with Axel. They had more in common than he would have expected. Axel's mother had educated her children herself, and she had been a well read woman who encouraged their curiosity. Most of the villagers had little use for reading, but Axel had a small library and often wrote poetry in his spare time. He claimed it wasn't very good and hadn't let Roxas see any of it, so the blonde really had no idea if it was bad or not. It probably was though. The world was full of bad poetry. Roxas didn't mean to impose and Axel was often busy at his work, so with a fine disregard for propriety, the redhead included Roxas in the chores. The blonde ended up learning all kinds of things that nobles weren't supposed to know, ranging from how to smoke fish to how to can fruit and pickle vegetables for the winter. Axel also taught the blonde about various herbs, reasoning that knowledge was never wasted and Roxas wasn't about to go into competition against him any time soon.

"Axel, what are you doing with the foxglove?" Roxas frowned as he looked over Axel's herb mixtures. Axel had mentioned foxglove as something dangerous and cautioned him to keep the horse away from the herb garden, but he hadn't gone into the medicinal properties of it.

"Hm?" Axel said absently as he adjusted his headband. "Oh. This is for Madam Pumfrey." Roxas frowned, vaguely remembering a Mr. Pumfrey. He was one of the tenant farmers. "She has a weak heart. This helps, although I've made it clear to her family that there's no real cure."

"But you said it could kill the horse?" That didn't make much sense to Roxas. Was it a poison or a medicine? Axel looked up with a grin.

"This isn't like the fever cordials, Roxas. A lot of the really potent herbs are also poisons if used on a healthy person." Axel put the mashed leaves into a big pot of water, boiling them. "On Madam Pumfrey, this stuffs evens out her heartbeat and makes her stronger. On you or me, we'd get some sick if we took this. We might even die, if we took enough." Axel shook his head. "I lost a cat that way once. Stupid thing… most animals figure out that this stuff is bad after they taste it. It's very bitter, but horses can be really stupid too." Roxas wanted to disagree… his mare was very clever in some ways… but he had to admit that food was not one of them. Axel stirred the mixture. "This is going to be boiling for a while. Then I'll bottle it. I always make enough in the summer to see her through the winter."

"Sometimes I wonder what we'd do without you." After hanging around Axel, Roxas had a better appreciation for everything he did for the village. Small, subtle magics encouraged the land to be fruitful and the water in the well to be clean. They weren't powerful magics, if someone threw trash in the well it would still be fouled, but they were impressive in their own way. Almost good luck charms, they made life easier for everyone. And Axel was always called out when someone was hurt, except by those who truly hated him. Even when his powers were stretched Axel could make sure that a wound would heal cleanly. When he was full of strength and willing to spend it, he could turn a fresh cut into one that looked like it had already healed for a week. But a lot of the villagers only seemed to resent and fear him more because of it. Roxas just couldn't understand it.

"Axel, I was wondering. Would you like to go to the tavern with me? There's going to be a traveling bard in town next week." Cloud had made a bit of a big deal about it. The bard was normally employed by the King and had decided to do a tour of the countryside. Axel glanced up from the herbs, and Roxas was surprised by the coolness in his expression.

"I'm not welcome at the tavern, Roxas." Axel's tone was bitter. "That has been made quite clear to me." The innkeeper didn't care, but the other villagers had made it plain he was not going to be tolerated there. Not that Axel had been terribly surprised. They hadn't been welcome to share in the general entertainment in generations. Roxas stared, a touch shocked.

"That's terrible!" He exclaimed and Axel shrugged. He knew why Roxas was shocked, though. The tavern was the centre of the village social life. Being excluded from it made the blood witch's status very plain.

"It is what it is." Axel's tone was simply accepting, now. "I can't go. If I did it would be uncomfortable for everyone, and the villagers would make me pay later." Cloud could do many things, but he couldn't change what the villagers thought. Roxas looked down, feeling depressed.

"It's just so unfair." He muttered, wishing there was something he could do. The bard was going to be doing a private performance at the manor but if he asked his father to invite Axel, his father would wonder why he cared about the blood witch. And that would lead to some very awkward questions and probably his father banning him from seeing Axel. Roxas looked up as he felt a warm hand on his shoulder and saw Axel smiling down at him, his green eyes warm.

"Don't worry about it Roxy. I don't mind." Roxas blushed at the nickname but smiled. From Axel that was… sweet. Although he was sure the redhead was lying about not minding. Anyone would mind being excluded.

The next week, Roxas couldn't shake a faint sadness as he listened to the bard play. It was beautiful and his family and all the servants were enjoying it, but he wished Axel could be there to hear. It hurt to think of him at home, missing everything.

The seasons changed, and everything seemed to be going well in the village. The harvest was good and that sweetened almost everyone. Axel got almost good prices for his canned fruit, good enough that he felt no need to travel out of town. Even the weather was gentle, dumping plenty of snow but without truly bitter temperatures. Axel was very pleased with that. He was trying to grow a few peach trees, but they didn't react well to truly cold winters. The apricots were hardier.

Axel was drinking a cup of tea and staring dreamily into his fire when a hard knock at the door suddenly interrupted his thoughts. Blinking, he stood, wondering who it could be. The hammering was quite unlike Roxas. He opened the door just as the man was about to knock again.

"Can I help you?" Axel said, a touch dryly, then frowned. He didn't recognize the tall, nondescript man in particular but knew what he was from his clothes. He was one of Cloud's foresters. Axel _did_ recognize his horse, and bit his lip lightly. That black, spirited stallion was Cloud's personal horse. What had happened?

"You are called to the manor. My Lord's son is very sick and needs healing." From his tone, this wasn't a request, it was a demand. Not that any blood witch would be fool enough to refuse a Lord in any case. Axel stared at him for a moment, shocked, then ducked back into the house.

"A moment!" He called as he found his healing kit. He left behind the bandages, splints and things for simple wounds but took the rest. "Ready." The forester was already mounted, clearly impatient as Axel locked the front door and activated the house wards. He gave the blood witch a hand up and Axel clung on tightly as they rode to the manor. He knew how to ride a little, from when his family had owned an ancient plow horse a farmer had wanted to give an honorable retirement, but it wasn't much. That gelding hadn't been willing to move past a walk even when he was feeling frisky, completely unlike this galloping stallion. The only plus side to the jolting ride was that it kept him from thinking too much about what could be wrong with Roxas.

There were many things it could be, many diseases that stalked the land. It had always been that way, and always would be, despite what the blood witches could do. Axel couldn't cure diseases, not really. He could treat the symptoms though, and with many diseases if the symptoms were treated long enough and the body bolstered enough, people would mend. That was even true of plagues, Axel had been told. He'd never seen one, something he was thankful for. Blood witches were quite immune to disease, but it would still be ghastly.

Finally they arrived at the manor and the forester swung down, handing the reins to a wide eyed groom. Axel followed the man into the manor, and glanced around a moment. Nothing had changed since the last time he'd come, to treat one of the servants for a sliced arm. It was still full of well varnished dark wood and ancient paintings of flowers. Axel found it rather homey, for a manor house, and wondered idly if his family had once owned those paintings.

"Axel." Lord Cloud Strife met him at the base of the stairs, and Axel nodded to him cordially. Cloud didn't insist on anything more formal, although he could have demanded bows from the villagers. "Good. Roxas is in his room, let me show you."

"What precisely is wrong?" Axel asked as they walked, feeling very worried. Disease was always to be feared. Cloud frowned before answering.

"At first we thought it was just the usual winter sickness. But his fever is very high now, and he's coughing constantly and having some trouble breathing. He says his chest hurts." Axel frowned. That sounded like pneumonia, although he wasn't going to decide for sure until he'd checked over Roxas with the blood magic. Cloud showed him into Roxas' room, and Axel glanced around curiously. It was all done in black and white, oddly enough. Roxas looked up from his bed and suddenly smiled.

"Hey Axel." He rasped out, then coughed, a deep, wet cough.

"Hello young Lord." Axel replied and saw a brief flash of hurt in Roxas eyes before he blinked and looked at Cloud. They couldn't afford to betray how well they knew each other here. "Let me examine you." Roxas nodded and shivered as Axel pushed back the blankets, gently checking him with both physical and magical senses. Axel frowned as he found the buildup of fluid in the boy's lungs, the heat of the fever. It led him to only one conclusion.

"He has pneumonia." Axel tested the fever with his senses. "The fever isn't life threatening yet, so we should leave that be. But there's plenty that can be done." Searching through his bag, Axel found some other concoctions that would help relieve the strain on Roxas' lungs.

At first, he tried strictly physical things, bolstered by a bit of blood magic. Axel had the cooks make a broth full of vegetables for him to eat and made certain Roxas drank enough water. Dehydration was always a problem with fevers. He added some of his hand made oils to boiling water, and got Roxas to breathe in the steam. With his blood magic, he could sense that it helped. But it didn't help enough that he felt comfortable going home.

"Cloud, this could easily get worse. Should I stay a few days?" Normally Axel wouldn't have suggested it. He didn't trust any of the villagers that far, and most of them didn't have room anyway. But the manor was huge and had many unused rooms. Cloud nodded and Aeris looked relieved that he'd been the one to suggest it.

"If you could. We would very much appreciate it." It wasn't as big an imposition in the winter as it would have been in the summer, but it was still asking a lot for Axel to leave his home and stay with them. "We can send a forester to get your clothes." Axel nodded.

"Just bring him to me so I can give him the key and bless him so the wards will let him through." Otherwise, the forester would be getting absolutely nothing out of the house. Axel glanced at Roxas. The blonde was sleeping now, and the only sign of his illness was the flush along his cheekbones. Hoping this would prove to be an easy healing, Axel followed one of the servants to the rooms they had given him. Glancing around, he snorted in amusement. This was clearly the old nursery, but it had been kept clean and the bed was in fine shape, if you ignored the ducky prints on the covers. Axel didn't care about that in the least, and on touching the bed found that it had a truly fine mattress, much better than the one he had at home.

He quickly fell into a sleep that was touched with vague dreams of fire and blood rosettes.

* * *

Axel frowned as he gently touched Roxas' chest. The blonde was looking at him in a strange, bleary fashion that he didn't like at all. His senses quickly confirmed his suspicions.

"The fever is too high. We need to lower it." Axel knew that fever was the bodies way of fighting infections. People took his fever cordials to feel better when they had to work anyway, but he didn't recommend taking them during serious things like this unless the fever was too high. Unfortunately, that had become the case. He quickly pulled out his cordials and teas. "Can you have the servants brew this, please?" The willow bark tea wasn't very effective, but added to the cordials it would help. Roxas started coughing again as Axel fed him the cordial.

Over the day, they gave Roxas several baths in tepid water to help lower his temperature. It didn't work as well as Axel would have hoped, and he snarled to himself as he felt the disease acting on Roxas' body. Axel blinked as he felt someone touch his shoulder and looked up into one of the servant's concerned eyes, realizing that he had his hand clamped tightly to Roxas' shoulder.

"Sorry." Axel muttered, letting go of the blonde and looking into his face. Roxas was almost unconscious now, his eyes half-closed and dazed. Making a quick decision he looked at the servant. "Can you fetch Cloud and Aeris, please?" He needed their permission for what he intended to do. The servant girl looked frightened but nodded, hurrying away. Axel wondered who she was. He didn't recognize her, so she probably hadn't come from the village, but he knew Cloud had hired some servants from the city. She came back with Cloud and Aeris quickly, and Axel could see that Aeris had been crying.

"Things aren't going well." Axel said, looking at them. Cloud frowned as Aeris sniffed and rubbed her eyes. "Cloud, I need to do a working or I don't think he's going to make it." Cloud stiffened and Axel caught the flash of almost anger in his eyes, quickly suppressed. If it had been up to him, Axel wouldn't have asked at all, he would have just done it. But it was illegal to do this kind of magic to a child without the parents' permission.

"Do what you have to do." Cloud said harshly and Axel nodded, green eyes sad. He knew why the magic bothered Cloud, but there was nothing at all he could do about that. Reaching into his bag he pulled out his second set of supplies, a bowl, a salt mixture that would keep the blood from setting and a small paintbrush. Fortunately, after several months with no real use his powers were at high ebb at the moment. He even had a bit of body fat, although not as much as he'd like for something like this. Cutting himself, he let the blood fall into the bowl, squeezing the cut until he had enough. Then he mixed it with the salts and went to work painting the runes on Roxas body. Losing himself to the magic, he was oblivious to Aeris and Cloud watching. They didn't matter. All that mattered was the blood that glittered like rubies as he called forth the power.

The real blood magic could do more than just bolster the bodies' defenses, but it exacted a hard toll. Roxas was breathing much easier and had fallen into a normal sleep by the time he was done, but Axel was exhausted and ravenous. He had to be helped back to his room and to the servant's amazement, ate like he hadn't seen food in a week. Soon he was asleep again, and this time it was dreamless. Over the next few days he repeated the treatments, spending his own resources recklessly to ensure Roxas' survival.

"Mff?" A few days later, Roxas woke up from what felt like the best sleep he'd had in his life. His mouth tasted truly foul, but other than that he felt… great. Really amazing, in fact. Sitting up, the blonde looked down at his body and paled. The blood Axel had used to write the runes was black and smelled burnt, and the runes were scrawled all over him. "Mom?" Aeris was sitting beside him, looking very tired. She smiled brilliantly, though, when she saw he was awake.

"Roxas! How do you feel?" She touched his face and cuddled him close. He let her, although most times he would have pulled away.

"I feel really good, mom." Roxas suddenly blinked as he remembered Axel's brief mentions of how blood magic worked and paled as he suddenly realized why he felt this good. "Mama, is… uh, the blood witch okay?" He managed to stop himself just in time to avoid saying something revealing, but Aeris didn't seem to notice.

"He's fine Roxas. You can say thank you to him after he wakes up." Roxas somehow doubted Axel was really fine, but if he was in danger of dying his mother wouldn't have been this happy. Would she? No, she wouldn't.

Cloud was there soon, and he and Aeris insisted he eat and bathe before seeing Axel. Although Cloud cautioned him that the blood witch was still asleep, and probably would be for some time. Roxas was glumly certain that unconscious was a better way to describe Axel's state. When they finally let him into the old nursery, Roxas immediately saw he was right. Axel had always been rangy, muscle over bone with very little fat, but now what little he had was burnt away and probably some muscle as well. His bones were showing prominently under the skin, but despite that Roxas felt a bit of relief. Despite his terrible thinness, Axel seemed healthy and was breathing normally as he slept. Roxas reached out to gently run a hand through soft red spikes –

And jumped as Cloud cleared his throat behind him. Roxas blushed as he caught his father and mother both staring at him and looked away, embarrassed.

"He looks like he's going to be fine." Roxas said firmly. "Can we have the servants call me when he wakes up?" He was trying to distract them from his momentary lapse. Roxas wasn't sure if it was working or not, but Cloud seemed to be willing to go with it.

"That shouldn't be a problem, Roxas." This wasn't like the near drowning. Axel was in their house, their guest, and would be until he had recovered from the healing. There was no way to prevent Roxas from giving his own thanks.

"Thanks dad." Roxas smiled and hugged his father a moment, amazed at how good he felt, how healthy and energetic.

If only he hadn't borrowed that feeling from Axel.


	3. The Magic Mirror

Roxas knew the time was fast approaching when he would have to make a decision. Sighing, he walked around the family gardens, not really seeing any of the wrote iron and beautiful flowers Aeris nurtured. His mother had always been fond of flowers and liked to work on them herself.

Roxas was sixteen now. Puberty was come and gone, and to his annoyance he hadn't really grown much at all. Worse yet, he couldn't grow a proper beard to save his life. The one time he tried his sister had laughed herself silly at him. The fuzzy golden hair was undignified at best.

Roxas thought that Cloud suspected who he was visiting, but his father had never said anything, for which he was grateful. So he'd kept visiting Axel every chance he got, and that had led to his current problem. He wasn't sure how he felt about the redhead. Or rather, he knew exactly how he felt about Axel… but didn't know what to do about it.

He wanted Axel in bed. Blushing, Roxas looked down, but faced the thought squarely. He wanted to feel Axel's hands on him and touch the redhead right back. It was frightening, but he wanted to feel Axel inside him and wanted to go inside him. His mind had painted lurid fantasies for almost a year now. But he'd hesitated because that wasn't _just_ what he wanted. Axel had finally mentioned his summer romance with Sora, which had explained a lot about his brother. But Roxas didn't want just a summer romance… he wanted something more.

But how? There was no shame in liking the cocks as well as the hens… Roxas blushed a little at that phrase, but it had come straight from the sexual book his tutor had used to teach him… but a noble had to be prepared to get married and sire heirs. Roxas wasn't the first son and wouldn't inherit the manor, but that didn't matter. Second son meant that if anything happened to Sora he would suddenly be the heir, and he was expected to make a good match, preferably to a girl with property. Not yet, he was far too young, but as soon as his University education was done. If he didn't do anything he would be leaving for that next year and he likely wouldn't see much of Axel after that. He had to make a decision now. But he just didn't know what to do!

Walking into the house, Roxas absently went into his parent's room, staring into the floor length mirror there. His father had never liked it, but Aeris loved it. It was decorated with ornate rosettes, and Roxas vaguely remembered someone telling him that meant something, but he couldn't remember what. Reaching out he stroked one part of the ornamentation then suddenly gasped as something pricked his finger. Yanking his hand back, he saw a drop of blood on the wooden frame. The picture in the mirror seemed to swirl a bit and Roxas blinked, rubbing his eyes.

_What is your question?_ Roxas started, jumping back as he heard the voice in his mind. It sounded like himself, but even more unnerving was the way his reflection failed to move. It just stood there looking at him, blue eyes wide and blank, almost inhuman.

"My… q-question?" Roxas stammered, suddenly realizing. This mirror was magic! And probably blood magic, since it had activated when he pricked his finger. No wonder his father didn't like it, it had probably come with the original house. "I don't have a question." His reflection looked vaguely scornful at that reply.

_If you didn't have a question this mirror would not have responded to your blood. Think harder._ It said to him, and Roxas paused as he realized he _did_ have a question.

"What do I do about Axel?" He almost whispered, but the mirror didn't seem to care about his volume. His mirror image looked thoughtful for a moment.

_Do you love him?_ Roxas winced, looking down at that question.

"I think I might." He wasn't sure. They hadn't even been intimate yet. "But it's crazy! How can we be together?" The mirror seemed to consider the question seriously.

_It is not impossible. Very few things are, in the end. But it would require great sacrifice on both your parts._ Roxas' breath caught in his throat, as he suddenly wondered if the mirror had dark magic in mind. Was this mirror cursed? But then he relaxed as the mirror continued. _You would have to give up your birthright and family._

"My family? What are you saying?" Roxas didn't like that idea at all. He loved Cloud, Aeris and most definitely Namine. The mirror considered a moment before speaking again.

_You cannot be with the blood witch as a noble, unless you keep him as a lover on the side which would be both dishonorable and likely unacceptable to him._ Roxas winced at that thought. If he married a woman, he would never dishonor her that way. _So the only way to be with him is to abjure your heritage._

"But I can't unless… oh." Roxas ran a hand through his hair as he thought hard about it. He was beginning to see what the mirror meant about sacrifices. "Cloud would never accept this." If he ran away to live as a commoner his father would surely drag him back.

_No, he would not. _The mirror agreed then said nothing more. It didn't need to. Roxas stared at it, going pale.

"You're saying I would have to… that's horrible!" He could see where the mirror was going with this. He would have to leave his family behind completely, if he wanted to stay with Axel, and the only way to do that would be to convince them he was dead. "I can't do that to them."

_That is your decision. _Roxas bit his lip hard, but the mirror continued, unconcerned. _But it is not only your decision. Before you agonize you must find out whether or not Axel feels the same way and if he wishes to abandon HIS life._

"I know he likes me." Roxas could feel the desire in the redhead's gaze at times, and Axel was courting him after a fashion. Not like a man and a woman, of course, but Roxas was sure he wouldn't spend the time teaching just any random boy to fish and lay traps.

_Yes, he does, and no doubt he would agree to a summer romance. But he owns his home and has lived here for as long as your father. Does he want to give up his life?_ Roxas thought about that. He knew Axel disliked the villagers, mostly, although he had a bit of fondness for his chronic patients like Madam Pomfrey. But that didn't mean he'd be willing to just toss it all for the uncertainty of trying to make it with Roxas. They both had so much to lose… _You must ask him. If he says no everything we have discussed has no merit._

"You're right. I have to talk to him about this." Roxas hesitated, looking into the mirror. "Uh… if you don't mind me asking… what are you?" The mirror smiled, then soundlessly laughed at him.

_I am only a reflection of your thoughts. You have been talking to yourself. That is the function of this mirror, to lead you to what you already know… _Roxas blinked as the reflection wavered, then went back to normal. That was a very clever piece of magic and it made him wonder about the stories of the Blood King. Could the things mentioned in that story be real?

Well, it didn't matter. That had been a long time ago. What mattered was now, and Roxas resolved to mention it to Axel the next time he saw him.

* * *

"Um, Axel?" Roxas was helping Axel make some jam as he tried to screw up his courage to mention his feelings to the redhead. Axel was smiling as he stirred the jam. Sugar was expensive but things had been going well for him, so he could afford this little extravagance.

"Yes, Roxy?" Roxas smiled at that nickname but then took a deep breath to confess his love –

And was rudely interrupted by the whinny of a horse and a knock on the door. Axel looked up, startled, and Roxas blanched. Could his father have – but then a voice rang out.

"Axel! Where are you, cocksucker?" Axel almost dropped his spoon at that.

"Reno!" Roxas caught the spoon as Axel ran out of the kitchen, yanking open the front door. "What are you doing here? Effie!" Roxas stepped out of the kitchen and blinked as he saw Axel hugging a tall man that resembled him a great deal, but had blue eyes, then doing the same to a vivacious woman with beautiful auburn hair. She gave Axel a peck on the cheek as the other man grinned. "I never thought I would see the two of you here! What's going on?"

"We're having a spot of bother." The woman, Effie, started talking and Roxas stared. Her voice was glorious, like sugar and cream and full of lively warmth. Then she spotted Roxas and stopped, startled. "Oh! You have a visitor?" Reno turned and frowned as Roxas swallowed nervously. Axel just took it in stride.

"Yes, this is Roxas Strife. We're friends." Effie looked amused and Reno grinned. Axel glared at them both. "Not that way!" Roxas felt like his heart was going to drop through his feet. "Not yet anyway." Axel amended and he started breathing again. "Can you perverts please tell me why you're here? Don't worry about Roxy, he can keep a secret."

"If he's Cloud's son and your friend, I daresay." Reno said dryly, then sighed. "Axel, um. You know how Effie and I went to seek our fortunes in the city?" Axel nodded. Reno and Effie were both fifth children who could anticipate absolutely nothing from their parents beyond lots of love. "Well, what we found was Rufus Shinra. He's the scion of the Shinra family." Roxas blinked. Those were nobles. "They're not one of the five, so they hire blood witches for things." That didn't make much sense. Five what? Roxas made a mental note to ask Axel later. "I got hired as a bodyguard… you know my blood witch magic is weak compared to my fire… and Effie was taken on as a healer. We thought it was great." Reno paused and from the look on his face, he didn't want to go on. Effie stepped in, her aquamarine eyes smoldering with anger.

"Then he developed an unnatural attraction to my husband!" Effie snapped and Axel winced. "Oh Axel, I don't mean you. I have nothing against men who like the cock. If he'd made the proposition and dropped it when my husband turned him down, I'd have had no problem with it. If the feeling were mutual we could have worked something out, I'm not a jealous sort and I do like a good threesome." She leered playfully at Axel and he blushed, which made Roxas blink. Then she sobered, her voice turning dark and angry. "But when my husband rejected him that should have been enough to tell the man Reno isn't interested. Not a sign to start some perverted dominance game!"

"Right." Reno agreed and Roxas could see a matching anger in his eyes. He reached out to grip his wife's hand and Roxas could see the love and attachment in the glance they exchanged. "Things got a bit, no, make that a lot difficult so we had to take off. Axel, we were hoping you could hide us for a while." Reno grimaced then, running a hand through his hair. "I've got to be honest, though. He might come looking for us and Rufus has a lot of dangerous people working for him. If you don't want to risk it we understand." Effie looked a little drawn at the thought and Roxas wondered how long these two had been on the road. Axel shook his head.

"Don't be stupid Reno. You're welcome to stay as long as you need to. You guys are the closest thing to a family I've got left, I'm not going to turn you away." Axel suddenly paused. "Oh shit the jam!" Roxas winced and ran back with Axel as he looked into the pot and sighed. "Oh good, it hasn't burnt." He stirred the jam again before looking at it critically. "It's about ready to jar. Reno, since you're here, fire up the water again would you?"

"Sure thing." Roxas stared as Reno touched the basin with the jars and the water quickly began to boil. Reno caught him watching and grinned. "I'm not much of a blood witch but my fire-fu is strong." They quickly began to pot up the jam, Effie and Reno pitching in willingly. Roxas resigned himself to speaking to Axel about his feelings another time, and decided to ask a question that had been preying on his mind.

"You said something about the five. What did you mean?" He asked Reno, who paused and glanced at Axel, who shrugged.

"You might as well tell him. Cloud would probably let him in on it next year. Try to look surprised when your dad tells you, hey?" Axel said jokingly as Reno smiled, filling up another jar with jam.

"Heh. Well, kid, have you heard about the Blood Kings and all the terrible things they did?" Roxas nodded. "Those stories are totally factual. Ever wondered how normal people defeated them?" Roxas blinked. He HAD wondered that. If the Blood Kings had been able to do things like raise the dead, how could normal people have defeated them? "The truth is, they didn't. It was more like a civil war. Five of the most powerful noble familes are all blood witches." Roxas felt his jaw drop. He'd never heard _anything _about this. "They're the ones who sided with Kaen Sodrosin when he started putting together his rebellion."

"The families are the Shaef, Reistu, Morgath, Zael and Firrana lines." Effie took up the story as Reno paused to flip on some lids. That was another surprise. Roxas knew that his own family, the Strife's, were part of the Zael clan. "They've pretty much abjured the blood witch culture although they've kept the blood rosettes. Not a surprise really, since families like Axel's would never welcome any of them to the meets." Axel nodded, glancing over at Roxas.

"Basically, there are four kinds of blood witch families. The noble ones, who have turned aside from their heritage except for the power. Then there are the families that were pretty much destroyed in the rebellion. They're mostly dead. Then you have families like mine, that didn't take sides at all. We mostly got kicked off our estates and the bad feelings linger. Then there's the random blood witch families, like the gypsy-kin, who never had anything and show up at the meets when they feel like it."

"I – I never heard about any of this. It's not written in the histories." Roxas was sure none of the villagers knew about it either. Would attitudes be different if people knew so many high nobles were blood witches? Three of the families he'd named were very prominent and close to the King.

"The nobles and the King had it written out of the histories." Effie said as they dumped the jam jars into the cooling bath. "I sometimes wonder how things might have gone if everyone had known." She shrugged. "But it's too late now."

"Is that why Cloud doesn't like you?" The question popped out before Roxas could stop it, and Reno and Effie looked at him, surprised. Axel looked surprised too, then grinned.

"Kind of! Poor Cloud. It was partly my fault." Roxas stared at him, demanding an explanation, and Axel shrugged as he ran a hand through his hair. "When we were kids I told him all about what I was doing, how neat it was to be a blood witch. I never told him he could be one but he knew somehow that he had the background for it, and, well…" Axel shrugged again and Roxas frowned. Was Axel saying that Cloud was jealous? That almost seemed to fit, now that Roxas thought about it. There was always a faint bitterness in his father's voice when he mentioned how useful the blood magic was. His father was too fair minded to hold it against Axel, but that didn't mean he could get rid of the feeling.

"Hmm." This was a lot for him to digest, and Roxas made a mental note to act surprised when Cloud told him. His parents didn't seem to have figured out where he was going yet, or maybe they just didn't want to know. The village boys didn't really want to be friends with the only noble child in town and his parents knew that was hard for him. Roxas left soon after that, wishing he could have spoken to Axel privately… and wondering what Reno and Effie's presence would mean for the future.

It might be interesting.


	4. Sex in the Meadow

"Axel?" Roxas said, looking over at the redhead by his side. They were lying together in a meadow not far from Axel's house, just looking at the clouds and enjoying the warm summer breeze. Effie and Reno were tending the garden which was doing better than ever with three blood witches to look after it.

It had been a week and things had changed a bit. Reno and Effie and cleaned out and fixed up the old stable for their horses and pitched into all the chores with a will. Effie in particular had a mania for neatness and was keeping things even cleaner than Axel had, and Axel had been no slob. They both felt that Axel was doing them a huge favor and showed their appreciation by helping out everyway they could. That gave them more free time to just spend together, and Roxas felt his feelings growing even stronger. He couldn't turn away from them. He felt like his life would be empty without Axel in it.

"Hm?" Axel opened his eyes, glancing over with a smile. Roxas felt his heart skip a beat at that smile. Axel was so… so warm, so wonderful to be around. Without thinking, Roxas smiled back. He couldn't know that Axel was thinking much the same thing about him. Deciding to go with the show part of show and tell, he quickly pressed his lips against Axel's. Axel immediately responded, sliding a hand into Roxas' golden hair and deepening the kiss. They had both wanted this for so long, it only felt right. But Roxas pulled away, breathing heavily as Axel's hands slid over him.

"Axel, no." He muttered, shaking his head and making the blood witch stare at him in surprise. "It's… I don't just want a summer romance." He looked into Axel's green eyes, hoping the redhead would understand, and tangled his hands in Axel's shirt. "I want… you. All of you. I want to be with you forever." Axel stared at him, shocked by the suggestion.

"Roxas, that's… that's not possible." Axel said huskily, running his hand through blonde spikes. He would have liked nothing better than being with Roxas forever, but that just couldn't be. "I like you a lot but you're a noble and I'm a blood witch, and we just can't." Axel couldn't see any way that could work. Roxas took a deep breath.

"Not if we stay here. Not if everyone thinks I've just run off with. We have to leave everything behind. We have to make a new life for ourselves." Tears bit at his eyes, but Roxas continued doggedly as Axel listened, stunned. "I love my family but I l-love you so much. I don't want to live without you." Roxas felt that so intensely. He loved Cloud and Aeris but they had always been a bit removed from him. Namine had been closer, but she was very involved with her art now and planning to go to a college for that. He would miss them, but Axel had become everything to him. "I want to follow this feeling… but do you?" Axel drew in a deep breath, then let it out in a strange, almost hysterical laugh.

"Roxas… after you left for university I was going to finally sell the house and move away, because I thought it would be empty without you." Warm hands cupped Roxas' face, and he stared into intense green eyes. "I would love to leave with you. But are you sure? Are you sure you want to do this? It might be hard." They would have the money from Axel's sale of the house and whatever Roxas could take, but they might have hard times. Roxas nodded resolutely.

"I really want to." He knew it was probably insane and cruel to his family, but Roxas wanted to make a life for himself with Axel, whatever it took. Warm lips hit his and Roxas melted against Axel, letting the redhead hold him this time. It felt so good, being held by the man he desired more than anything in the world. Axel licked his ear, making him shiver, then spoke.

"Well. If we're going to run away like a pair of love struck idiots, we should at least be lovers first." Roxas couldn't help but laugh at that, and Axel smiled, unbuttoning his shirt.

"Axel, I'm not a virgin but I've never been with a man." Roxas confessed, feeling more than a bit nervous as warm hands slid over his skin. He knew how this was supposed to go, theoretically, thanks to his tutors but he was still very worried about it. Axel kissed his throat and Roxas sighed, letting his head fall back a bit so Axel could attack the soft, sensitive skin.

"I thought as much." Axel said with a contented hum, and Roxas smiled, reaching up and pulling away Axel's headband. Freed, his hair slid over his eyes for a moment before Axel pushed it back. "Hey!"

"You look better without it." Roxas said softly, kissing the redhead again. He was hardly aware of it happening but somehow their clothing ended up in a messy tangle beside them. Axel's hands felt like they were everywhere, and he had a small bottle of lotion that he squeezed onto his fingers. "You've been anticipating this." That was almost sweet. Axel grinned, running his slicked fingers over Roxas' erection and making the smaller boy moan.

"Of course. And it also does double duty as lip balm." Roxas blinked at that, then laughed.

"You're so disgustingly practical." Roxas whispered in Axel's ear and was rewarded with a smile and a wonderful squeeze. "Oh… are you going to take me?" That thought made him nervous but Roxas thought he was ready. But Axel shook his head.

"Actually, I want something a bit different." His eyes were dark with lust as he looked over Roxas, then pushed him onto his back. The blonde went willingly, a bit confused, then swallowed as Axel reached behind himself. "I want to ride you." Roxas felt a jolt of desire at the thought. Roxas watched for a moment as Axel opened himself, then took a deep breath.

"Give me some of that lube." He wanted to help, wanted to be part of this. Axel smiled and gave him the bottle. Roxas coated his fingers with it quickly then reached behind Axel to open him. He wasn't quite sure what he was doing and it was a little awkward, but his efforts were soon rewarded with a gasp.

"Right there! That spot." Axel groaned throatily as Roxas applied a bit more pressure. It had been a long time since someone had done this to him and he savored the feeling. Axel stroked Roxas' already dripping length, sliding up a bit and positioning himself. Roxas swallowed, pulling his hand away and gripping Axel's hips as the redhead slowly slid down onto him. He had to restrain himself from thrusting up into that heat right away, and Axel paused for a moment, some pain but mostly pleasure on his face. Then he began to move…

"Axel!" Roxas moaned, writhing underneath the redhead as Axel rode him with practiced skill. Axel was setting the pace, making it hard and fast but Roxas wanted to help him, wanted to make it good for him. He reached down and stroked the redhead in time with the motions, making Axel groan and lean down for a moment, nuzzling his throat and licking the sweat slick skin.

"God, Roxas." Axel said huskily in his ear, and Roxas had to fight not to climax right then. It was just so _sexy_. "You're so amazing." Then Axel leaned back, deepening the penetration and moving even faster. Roxas panted, struggling to keep up and to stay sane under the onslaught of pleasure. It was all so good, so intense, so _amazing…_

"Axel!" Roxas speeded up his strokes, making Axel cry out in pleasure as he finally let go in a rush. The way Axel's body tightened and quivered around his was too much, and Roxas followed a moment later, arching up as he saw sparks behind his eyes. Relaxing under Axel, Roxas finally noticed something. He'd been aware of it for a while but it just hadn't seemed important. "Um, Axel?" He said sleepily as Axel nuzzled his throat. "We might have a problem."

"What's that – OH FUCK!" Axel lurched forward and off him as a wad of something wet and sticky hit him in the middle of the back, making Roxas groan in protest. "Fucking horse!" Reno's and Effie's horse had been let out of the stables to graze, since the wards would keep it on the property as well as repelling other animals. And the mare had decided to investigate what the humans in the area were doing. She had just drooled on Axel. "Stupid beast! Get away!" The mare gave him a vaguely hurt look and ambled away to eat grass elsewhere. Roxas couldn't help but laugh.

"That's what you get for feeding her carrots." He said, amused, as Axel cursed and tried to scrap off the spit. "Here." Roxas found his handkerchief and used it to help Axel. Axel let him, then laughed.

"Well, that wasn't as romantic as I pictured." It was oddly right, though. He put his arms around Roxas, smiling into the boys face. "I love you Roxy." He really felt it in a way he hadn't with Sora. His time with Sora had just been fun, and he was sure Sora had felt the same way… the brunette had never offered to give up anything for him. They lay together for a long moment in the meadow before Axel thought of something. "Mmm, Roxas, I'm amazed you thought of all this." It seemed like Roxas had put a lot of thought into how they could have a future together. Axel found it rather impressive.

"The mirror helped me." Roxas said sleepily, eyes closed as he enjoyed being nestled against Axel's chest, so he missed the redhead's sudden stillness. "Did you know there's a magic mirror in the house?"

"Uh… yes. Roxas, you activated the mirror?" Roxas opened his eyes, looking up into Axel's concerned ones. "That mirror is only meant to be used by blood witches. How did you manage that?" Roxas blinked, surprised.

"I touched it and it pricked me, then it started talking to me. Axel?" There was a dazed look on Axel's face and he was staring at the blonde like he'd never seen him before. It was making Roxas a touch nervous.

"Cloud would be so pissed…" Axel mused to himself, then laughed as Roxas frowned at him. "Roxy, you're perfect, you know?" Axel nuzzled him lovingly making him blink in confusion. "That means you have the talent for blood magic."

"I do?!?" Roxas stared as Axel nodded. His lover was smiling and clearly very happy, but Roxas wasn't at all sure what to think. "But… but I don't have red hair." From what Axel had said, all blood witches had red hair. Axel laughed lightly.

"I didn't either when I was just a kid… it was brown. It's using the talent that turns our hair red." Axel ruffled Roxas' curls, smiling. "If I teach you to use your talent, you'll turn strawberry blonde." Axel thought that would be a bit of a shame… Roxas' blonde hair was lovely… but it would still be cute. Roxas stared at Axel for a moment, then felt a strange sort of peace. This was a sign that he was on the right path.

"Will you teach me?" He asked softly and Axel kissed him again, warm lips against his.

"I'd love to." Axel murmured and then they both froze as a loud voice suddenly rang out behind them.

"Axel, where ARE you? We need more eggs and – oh." Effie stopped, staring, then raised her hands pacifically. "I see this is a bad time. But if you could take the wards off the money box we'd be very grateful!" Then she beat a hasty retreat. Axel sighed, reaching for his clothes.

"I think that broke the romance." Although he thought they'd been out here long enough, really. It was about time to start getting supper ready. Roxas sighed but pulled himself up, getting his clothes back on. "I should have rekeyed the money box earlier." Reno and Effie were both nearly broke. Neither one of them was at all good at saving and their headlong flight out of the city had eaten up what little money they had. Axel wasn't sure what they would have done if he'd turned them away and he preferred not to think about it. Resorted to thievery was his best guess. Effie and Reno were not overburdened by morals.

"You're sure I'm a blood witch?" Roxas asked Axel, still unsure if he should believe it. It seemed so incredible. Axel grinned and cupped his cheek for a moment, giving him a gentle kiss.

"Yeah, I'm sure. You have the blood on your dad's and your mom's sides, you know. There's no reason why you shouldn't be a blood witch." Roxas smiled, and Axel was dazzled by how radiantly happy he looked. It made him remember another boy a long time ago, and he felt bad for Cloud all over again. "Don't tell Cloud, Roxas, whatever you do. It would be really hard on him." Cloud was a fair man but it would have to color his feelings about Roxas. There was no way to avoid it, and Axel didn't want their relationship to be strained before Roxas left. Roxas winced and nodded.

"Thanks Axel." Roxas hugged Axel for a moment then pulled away with a sigh. "I better get going home." They would have to discuss how to pull of his vanishing act later. If he was away much longer, his parents might start to look for him. Axel nodded and they walked back to the house where Roxas' horse was waiting, munching on some hay. Roxas mounted up and left, giving Axel a parting wave. Axel waved back, smiling.

Later that night, over fried eggs and fresh salad, Axel explained the situation to a fascinated Reno and Effie.

"He has the talent? Do you know how much?" That was very interesting to Reno. The amount of talent needed to activate the mirror wasn't really that much. Roxas was certainly a blood witch and could probably wear the blood rosette, but he might be no stronger than Reno. Axel shook his head.

"No idea yet. I'll have to work with him to get a feel for it." The lack of any red in Roxas' hair wasn't a promising sign, but it didn't necessarily mean anything. If children weren't taught they sometimes didn't manifest the blood magic at all despite having a powerful gift. "Do you guys mind leaving though?" Axel was concerned about that. If he sold the house all four of them would have to go together. Reno laughed and Effie grinned.

"Are you mad Axel? We were worried someone would sniff out our connection to you and find us here." Reno's expression turned serious as he spoke. "A moving target is much harder to hit, and the farther we go away the better. If we'd had money for it, we'd have kept going." Axel winced and nodded.

"Maybe we could even think about leaving the country." Axel wasn't too keen on that though. The prejudice against blood witches could be just as bad in other lands, or even worse, from what they'd heard at the meets. And the wandering blood-kin saw and heard a lot so Axel was pretty sure it wasn't just stories. From the look on Reno's and Effie's faces, they were thinking the same thing.

"We'll burn that bridge when we come to it. But how were you thinking of faking the young Lord's death?" Reno sounded a bit ambivalent about that part of the plan and Axel knew why. Reno liked Roxas well enough but was worried that Cloud and Aeris might figure things out and come after them. As well, he had very little liking for nobles at the moment.

"I was thinking we could use a golem." Reno quirked his eyebrows and Axel grimaced. "I know. It would have to be a strong one to stand up long enough, but if we all pitch in together we could probably make one." It would also be rather grotesque and Roxas wouldn't like it, but it could be done. To make a flesh golem, they would either have to raid the cemetery or fashion animal flesh into what they needed. Axel favored the second, but that would require even more power than the first. "Between the three of us, four if Roxas gets enough control, we should be able to do it."

"I suppose, but Roxas won't like that ritual a bit." Effie observed and Axel sighed. It was extremely grotesque to watch and incredibly draining to participate in. Axel had only helped make a golem once before and that hadn't been a flesh one. It had been made out of stone and designed to be a permanent guardian. It had taken an entire circle of blood witches to make it, and Effie and Reno had both been there. They all knew how the ritual would go.

"Well, I'll teach him first. We have a couple months to put this into action." Axel said. Effie and Reno exchanged a brief glance.

"The sooner the better Axel." Reno advised him, blue eyes troubled. "The sooner the better." He and Effie wanted to get as far away from the capital and the Shinra family as they could.

Far, far away.


	5. The Golem

As it turned out, it was a very good thing they discovered Roxas' blood magic.

The first thing Axel taught him was how to use the mirror for something else. Its simplest application was to help someone work through their problems but that wasn't all it could do. Axel had a perfect mate to the mirror in his bedroom, to Roxas' surprise, and showed him something far more useful.

"Now, these mirrors. Almost all blood witches have one and you can use them to communicate over any distance." Axel explained. "Thing is, it takes a lot of energy to reach far away. When the mirrors are close together, though, it's very easy."

"So we can talk to each other when we can't meet!" Roxas was very pleased with that. Axel nodded, grinning.

"That's part of why your family kept that mirror. Your grand-dad had just enough of the magic to use it, so he wouldn't have had to send a forester to fetch mom if Cloud got sick. You should have more than enough." Axel wasn't sure yet how much talent Roxas had and wouldn't be sure until he was really trained. Blood magic seemed to grow as it was used, like someone building strength from lifting weights. "Let me show you how to do it…" Using smaller, hand held mirrors Axel showed Roxas how to activate them. Roxas laughed as he saw Axel's face in his mirror. Although he made a mental note to be careful when he activated the mirror, since anyone who looked would see Axel's reflection rather than his own.

"Oh!" Roxas blinked, feeling faintly dizzy as Axel ended the spell. He'd been vaguely aware of a _tugging_ feeling but hadn't realized what it was. "Axel, that feeling. Was that…?" He hesitated, trying to think of how to describe it and Axel nodded, expression serious.

"That was the draw on your strength. You'll learn how to gauge it more effectively over time, and with the really serious magic you'll learn how to evaluate your own body to determine what you can afford to convert into magic." Roxas winced a little at that. It sounded ugly. "Here, have a snack. It'll make you feel better." Axel got out the biscuit tin and passed him one. Roxas smiled, eating the fluffy biscuit. With Effie and Reno around the food went quickly so the biscuits were always nice and fresh. As if the thought of them had been a signal, there was a loud whistle outside and then a laugh. Axel made a small 'hmm' sound before going to the window and glancing outside.

"Holy crap!" Roxas blinked as Axel opened the door and ran outside. "Reno, you are crazy!" Following behind, Roxas gaped at the scene. Effie and Reno were both smeared in blood and grinning like fools. Not surprisingly, since it looked like they'd managed to catch the monster of all boars.

The wild boar was ugly, with absolutely huge tusks and a bristly back. Reno had clearly taken it with his fire magic, from the neat hole seared in the monster's chest. That would affect the meat but it was a minor consideration compared to survival. If Reno hadn't been good with the fire magic that boar could have killed them. They had only brought bows for their hunting.

"He's such an amazing man!" Effie marveled at the kill for a moment before grinning. "So who's helping me butcher it?" Roxas winced. He knew exactly how much work that would be and from the looks on their faces, the men did too.

"I killed it so Axel gets to help you." Reno immediately said and Axel scowled at him.

"Oh bullshit! This is a huge job, we all get to do it." Reno sighed but nodded. Butchering a hog could easily be a four person job, so all three of them would have plenty to do. "Let's make some sausage." Axel had the herbs for it and sausage would keep really well, not to mention being valuable to the villagers. Roxas went to his horse, which was snorting a little at the blood smell.

"I better be going home. See you later, Axel." Axel waved with a grin.

"See you later Roxas." Roxas smiled, walking his horse away before mounting and riding off. He felt great, better than he'd ever felt in his life.

And it all came crashing down when he arrived back home.

"Roxas, where have you been?" Cloud immediately demanded, looking more than just angry. He was quietly furious and Roxas blinked as wondered what had set this off.

"Uh, I was playing in the woods." That was not precisely a lie since Axel's property was full of woods and the meadow was close to them. It was, however, skinning the truth to the bone and from the way Cloud's eyes narrowed he knew it.

"With who?" He asked too softly and Roxas winced, looking away. "The blood witch?"

"His name is Axel." Roxas snapped and immediately knew it had been a mistake. If anything, Cloud looked even angrier.

"I will not have you wasting your time with that man! I've already been through this once with Sora." Cloud snapped. "He spent his entire first year of university writing letters to that… that Casanova!" Roxas blinked at that description of Axel. He suddenly tried to imagine Axel playing an instrument and singing under a ladies' window and had to suppress the urge to laugh. It wasn't hard with his father glaring at him. Then he suddenly frowned.

"Wait, letters? Axel never mentioned that." From the way Axel had described it they'd completely lost touch after Sora went to school. Cloud snorted.

"All the mail passes through my hands, Roxas. As if I would let that redhead distract him from his studies and his duty." Roxas felt his jaw sag. Cloud had intercepted Sora's letters?

"Dad! That's terrible!" Roxas was horrified and suddenly wondered how much Sora had really cared about Axel. Axel didn't seem at all broken up over it, but then it had been three years. "I hope you told him." If Sora knew his dad was being a jackass, well, that would have to be better than thinking his lover didn't care.

"Of course I told him. Don't change the subject." Cloud said briskly and Roxas winced. "I will not have another of my sons falling into the same trap. Yes, he's charming and interesting but he is not for you. If I catch you visiting him again, you'll be confined to your rooms." Roxas took a deep breath to keep fighting, then suddenly paused. He wouldn't be able to see Axel but he could speak to the redhead whenever he wanted, now that he knew about the blood mirror.

"Fine!" He snapped. "We weren't that close anyway. I was just being kind to him, since none of the villagers will." Cloud looked startled at that, then faintly uncomfortable. He didn't like the way the villagers treated Axel but he was really powerless to stop it.

"Well." Cloud said uneasily, then rallied. "If you want to be friends with him after you're done with university, fine. But not until then, understand?" Roxas protestations aside, Cloud didn't trust that Axel wasn't going to seduce him. Roxas nodded sharply then stalked off to his room, intending to pretend to sulk for a while. He was reading a book of poetry when Namine cautiously peeked into the room.

"Roxas? Are you okay?" Roxas looked up at her with an almost sad smile. He loved Namine a lot and would definitely miss her, but he'd be missing her eventually anyway. She would get married and they would only see each other maybe twice a year.

"I'm fine Nam." He glanced down at his poetry book and shook his head. "It's just so unfair." He was actually referring to how the villagers treated Axel, not Cloud's decree, but it would be easy for Namine to take it either way. She looked at him sadly, then walked over and sat down on the bed beside him.

"I know. It's not fair at all… but at least he'll have some company now." Roxas nodded. Everyone in the village knew a couple of Axel's family had come to visit, although Effie and Reno were both using blood magic to obscure their appearances and make people forget their names. It wasn't really hard since everyone just referred to them as the blood witches. "Don't be too hard on dad. He really broke Sora's heart, you know." Roxas couldn't help but bristle at that.

"Axel didn't even know Sora wrote to him." Roxas snapped back. "If he had, I'm sure he would have written back." Although that would have been expensive. Posting letters wasn't at all cheap. "It doesn't matter Nam. I'm not involved with him, he won't be too surprised if I stop showing up." Roxas lied through his teeth. It was best to just pretend he wasn't romantically attached at all and use the mirror to plan his escape. Namine looked reassured and smiled, reaching over to touch his hand.

"I'm glad. Would you like to go down to the river with me? We could go fishing." Roxas smiled at that. It would be rather fun to go fishing with his sister for a change.

"Sure, why not?" He wanted to spend as much time with her as he could before he finally had to go.

* * *

_Sora did what?_ Axel sounded almost shocked, and Roxas nodded grimly. It was the first time he'd managed to get to the mirror in a week, and Axel had been worried but not surprised to find out that Cloud was onto them. He was extremely surprised, though, to find out about Sora's letters.

"He tried to write to you but Cloud kept all the letters. I'm sorry, Axel." Roxas watched, a bit nervous as Axel looked guilty.

_That makes me feel like a total heel Roxas. I never knew he cared at all._ Axel had liked Sora but not loved him, and when no letters came he'd assumed Sora felt the same way. _I hope he's alright._

"I'm sure he is. Mom likes to boast about how he's engaged to a girl named Kairi now." Axel looked a bit reassured at that. "So what are we going to do?"

_Well, you're not coming to visit, that's for sure. If you get confined to the house we'll have a hell of a time pulling this off. _Roxas winced but nodded. Axel was right and he'd already thought that. _It's going to take me a while to find a buyer for the house. I suppose I should go to Cloud first._ Axel sounded less than enthusiastic and Roxas blinked.

"Cloud? Why?" That didn't make a lot of sense to him.

_He might want to add my properties to his. Not just that, he likes having a blood witch here so he might get in touch with the rest of his family to find a penniless one who'd be glad to live in the house and put up with the villagers. Maybe a small family that's fallen on hard times._ Roxas nodded. That made sense. Axel's property provided a good standard of living for him, even if money was always a bit tight. He was never in danger of starvation anyway. _Talking with him is going to be fun though. Oh well. At least he'll probably be happy to be rid of me._

"Reassured, anyway. So how are we going to manage the other part?" Roxas kept his voice low and glanced at the door on occasion. He didn't want any of the servants hearing this.

_Well… hrm. We'll have to wait on the house to make the golem, and you'll have to be present for that. Even if we don't use your strength we'll need you to make it look like you._ Roxas frowned but nodded. He wasn't keen on the golem idea at all. It sounded far too much like some of the things the old Blood Kings had done. Then he stiffened as he heard footsteps.

"Someone's coming." He hissed and then broke the connection, adjusting his clothing a bit and pretending to admire himself in the mirror as a servant peered in.

Over the next few weeks, Roxas spoke to Axel whenever he could. The servants started laughing a little about his preoccupation with the mirror, saying the young Lord was growing up and caring about how he looked for the girls. Nothing could be further from the truth but it was a good cover, and Cloud seemed to relax as the servants and foresters reported that his son had no more contact with the blood witch. He relaxed even more when Axel came to ask him about buying the house, although that posed its own problems. Roxas found out that Axel was entirely right about what Cloud would do. Soon a young man with auburn hair and his wife, a girl with strawberry blonde hair arrived at the house. She was very pregnant and nervous, but Aeris soon made her at home. Roxas discovered that their names were Saen and Vidali, and soon he'd heard their story from Namine. Apparently, they were younger children of very poor families and they'd been forced into a wedding when Vidali had become pregnant. Blood witches didn't have to get married if a woman's family was prosperous enough to support her, but Vidali's wasn't. Despite that they seemed to genuinely care about each other and were thrilled to have the opportunity to become Cloud's tenants. They seemed to take the villager's attitudes in stride, but then, it had probably been exactly the same where they came from.

The time finally came for them to cast the spell with the golem and Roxas slipped away from the house in the dead of the night. He didn't take the horse, traveling by foot to the road and meeting Reno there.

"Hey Roxas." Reno greeted him with a quick wave then mounted the mare, giving him a quick hand up. The mare snorted at being made to carry double but she handled it easily. "You ready for this?"

"I think so. What's it going to be like?" Roxas felt a bit nervous about this. Axel hadn't really given him a good description of what making the golem would be like. Reno pursed his lips thoughtfully.

"We're going to be working with flesh so, to be honest, it's going to be disgusting as fuck." Reno shrugged as Roxas looked down into the horses' mane. "Sorry, but I thought you should know. Flesh golems are sort of gooey at first."

"Okay, I think that's all I need to know." Roxas said, slightly nauseated. He wasn't looking forward to this at all now, but Axel and Effie swore it would work and they were the real blood witches of the group. "How are we going to get rid of the thing though?" They needed to make it look like Roxas had died in an accident.

"Effie had an idea although it might be a little hard on your horse. She's really good with animals, she should be able to take control of him briefly and make him roll over the golem." Roxas winced at the thought. That kind of horse accident could easily be fatal. "Axel can make sure the golem breaks its back or something, and it will only come apart after it's safely buried. No one should know the difference."

"What about the two blood witches staying at the house? They might realize something's wrong." Roxas thought they would speak up if they did. But Reno shook his head firmly.

"Axel's already spoken to them and if they want to show their faces at a meet ever again, they'll stay mum. Don't worry about them." Roxas relaxed at that. Of course Axel would have considered it.

It took them a while to get where they were going, and it turned out to be a cave deep under an ancient tree on the banks of the river. Roxas smiled as he glanced down at the river, remembering the day he almost drowned. He would never have thought it would lead to this.

"Hooweet!" Reno called out and Roxas blinked at the poor imitation of a hoo wit bird. There was a laugh from the cavern.

"Reno, you suck, and not in a good way. Get down here." Reno grinned at Effie's slow, beautiful drawl and carefully climbed down into the cave. Roxas followed easily and soon they were both in a wet, dark cavern. Roxas wrinkled his nose at the smell of freshly butchered meat and blinked at the two deer carcasses lying on the floor of the cavern.

"That seems like a lot for just me." He didn't think they would need that much raw materials. Axel grinned and Roxas saw that he and Effie were both naked from the waist up. He swallowed, glancing away from Effie's pert breasts. She was dabbing herself with woad, making blue patterns on her skin and mixing in blood. Axel was doing the same thing, and they were both making drawings on the carcasses and floor.

"We need to make sure we've got enough skin and hair, as well as the right bones and flesh. Not everything will work." Axel explained as he mixed more blood into a bowl. Effie added some of hers and Reno quickly stripped off his shirt, joining them. Roxas watched for a moment, hesitating.

"Should I take off my shirt too?" He finally asked and Axel shook his head.

"No. You're not trained enough. The biggest thing you need to know to participate in workings like this is how to protect yourself." Roxas frowned at that, not understanding what Axel meant. "It's way too easy to let the leader of the ritual draw all your strength out if you don't know what you're doing. The leader isn't going to look out for you, they're busy doing the spell. The participants have to monitor themselves and cut the leader off if it's too much. You don't know how to do that yet, so we could kill you if we included you."

"And that's why working with untalented people are extremely delicate." Effie said absently as she worked on her runes. "If a caster wants to take power from a normal person without killing them they have to be very careful. It's not really worth it unless you don't care if they live or die."

"And that's what the Blood Kings did?" Roxas asked and Axel nodded.

"Exactly. There's a tremendous power in death, but it's vile… I think we're ready." He said to Effie and she looked over the runes critically before checking over Reno, then Axel. Axel did the same thing for her and after a few moments they were both satisfied.

"We're ready." She lifted her hands, turning away from Roxas and he blinked as he saw something he'd never noticed before. She had a scar deeply burned into her left shoulder in the shape of a rosette. It seemed to glow with a red light as she began to softly hum and Roxas carefully slipped around until he was behind Axel. Not to his surprise, there was a matching scar on him. Even Reno had one, although the light from it was much dimmer than Axel's or Effie's. He wanted to ask what it was but he couldn't disturb the working. Effie gestured to him and Roxas gagged as a charnel reek suddenly erupted from the dead deer. The bodies shifted and _squished_ and Roxas had to look away, then clamp his hands over his ears as bones broke with splintering sounds. It sounded and smelled absolutely horrible, he didn't want to watch it.

Finally it was done. He took a quick look and wished he hadn't. The _thing_ lying in the centre of the circle was vaguely human shaped. It had skin and hair but it was, well, _gooey._ They kept working on it, refining it, and it finally looked a lot like him although it wouldn't fool anyone who knew him well. But that was fine. The finishing touch to the golem was going to be illusions designed to cloud his families' minds. To them, the golem would be him and would respond like him, but in actual fact their minds would be supplying the golem's end of things. Flesh golems couldn't actually talk and were about as stupid as stumps, so that was necessary.

Reno stepped back out of the circle, almost falling down as Axel and Effie kept working on the golem. Roxas blinked and went to his side, offering him a canteen of wine which he drank from noisily.

"Forgot how exhausting that is." Reno said, rubbing his face with one hand. "I'm not much of a blood witch, that's for damn sure." He knew he hadn't really lasted long or contributed much, compared to Axel and Effie.

"Oh… Reno, what's this? If you don't mind me asking." Roxas gently touched the brand on his back and Reno grinned tiredly.

"That's the blood rosette. It's a special rite we go through to open us up to the blood magic. Without it, a blood witch never realizes their full power. If you're strong enough, you'll get it. The tats are just cultural but the blood rosette is important." Reno laughed and took another swig of the wine. "I'm right at the bare minimum to get it, but it worked." So he was a full fledged blood witch, if a very weak one. Roxas nodded and looked up as Effie and Axel both stepped out of the circle. They weren't exhausted, but they had been sharing the cost of the spell. Roxas goggled as he stared at the golem, which was sitting up.

"Wow!" It really looked just like him now. It even smiled and Roxas wouldn't have known it was anyone else. "That's amazing." Although he knew it was mostly the illusion. But it was a very, very powerful illusion and would last for as long as a week. More than long enough for the copy to be decently buried. "Here's the clothes." He'd brought a set of clothes for the golem to wear, and it took them, putting them on easily. It said nothing, but Roxas knew it was a golem and didn't expect it to.

"I'll get it back to your house. It'll follow its programming to take a ride tomorrow." Reno said, taking the golem's hand and leading it out of the cavern. Effie and Axel would arrange the accident tomorrow. Roxas felt a chill as he realized that once they did that, there would never be any coming back. But he straightened his shoulders and nodded.

He'd already made his decision and he wasn't going to turn away from it. Whatever the cost might be.


	6. Sora

The next day required some careful planning.

Axel, Effie and Reno all left the village bright and early in the morning, stopping at the general store to buy a few extra supplies for the trip. Not many of the villagers saw them but enough to know that the blood witches were indeed gone.

Of course, they actually weren't. Reno's and Effie's horses as well as the 'pack' horses… actually the horses Axel and Roxas would be using… were all taken to an out of the way meadow with Reno and Roxas to serve as guard. Roxas met them there, having made his way on foot earlier. He hadn't gotten much sleep, but was able to catch a bit of shut eye as Reno watched over the horses.

Effie and Axel walked back, using spells and stealth to keep anyone from watching them. And the golem went on its morning ride as planned.

Everything went perfectly, although it was even harder on the horse than Axel had anticipated. Effie had to bite back a scream as the horse fell hard, rolling over the golem and smashing it very messily. Axel didn't have to do anything at all to ensure the wounds were quite fatal, but he did need to do some quick work to make sure the horse would survive. Effie was moaning softly, hands to at her head and face creased with pain. She'd known it would hurt, forcing the horse into that kind of an accident, but hadn't anticipated how much. Axel put an arm around her as they heard shouts and watched as people converged on the scene of the accident. For a moment, he almost took some malicious pleasure in Cloud's horror… he hadn't quite gotten over the revelation about Sora's letters… but that faded as he saw the matching horror on Aeris' face and the way Namine was crying. Briefly, Axel was glad Roxas wasn't here to see this. As soon as they were sure things were going according to plan, Axel and Effie left. The body would be buried before the week was out, and the illusions would hold easily for that long. The two new blood witches wouldn't say a word and everything would be fine.

Of course, that brought them to the next stage of their plan… or rather, lack of a plan.

"So where are we going, anyway?" Reno asked as Effie and Axel both ate some biscuits. Roxas rolled out of his cloak, yawning and feeling refreshed.

"I was thinking we might skip the kingdom and head over into Laisim." Axel pointed to a smaller kingdom to the East. Everyone considered the map for a moment. It was a good month long ride. "I know, it's a ways but they're fairly civilized there. I used the mirror to speak to Mistra and she says the cities there are pretty good to blood witches."

"Mistra? Oh, she lives near the black fens, right?" Reno traced a path on the map and Roxas frowned. They would have to travel through the black fens to reach Laisim. "Unpleasant trip this time of year. Perfect. No one would think to look for us there and it might put us out of Rufus' reach." Although he wasn't putting any money on that. Rufus Shinra had his fingers in too many pies for a mere kingdom away to be entirely safe. Still, it was a step in the right direction.

"What are we going to do when we get there?" Roxas spoke up. He'd been wondering about that. Axel and Effie had a natural position as healers but what about him and Reno? Axel grinned and Reno laughed.

"Well! We were thinking of taking the money I made from selling the house and investing in a tattoo parlor." Roxas blinked at that. "That's where you come in. Your drawings might not be as good as Namine's, but I wager you can make some killer ink designs."

"Uh, probably." That was a startling thought but rather attractive. "I could learn to do the inking too, couldn't I?" And once he was a full blood witch, he could use the ability to clean the wounds and even heal them a bit. That was why most tattoo and piercing parlors were run by blood witches, as well as their culture. If you got an infection after going to a blood witch parlor, you could be sure it was your own fault. The wounds would always be clean when you left.

"You sure could. With four of us, we could have quite a business in that and healing." Axel sounded pleased with the idea and Reno looked at the map thoughtfully again.

"Well, if we're going to do that we should travel a bit farther and go here." He firmly tapped the map. Their kingdom was landlocked, but Laisim had a very extensive coastline, and he was touching their largest coastal city. "Sailors love their tattoos. A city like that can't have enough parlors to meet the demand."

"It would add another week, but you're right. It's perfect." Effie commented, then checked over her horse before mounting up. "Let's get started. No time like the present." Roxas glanced back once as they rode off then squared his shoulders, riding into the future.

He was determined not to look back.

* * *

Sora stared out the window of his carriage forlornly.

He hadn't expected to go home again, once he left for university. He loved his mother but his relationship with his father was strained at best. He'd never expected to be called home this abruptly or for such a tragic reason.

A gentle hand on his shoulder recalled him to reality and Sora looked up into Riku's concerned eyes. He and Kairi were related somehow, although even the chroniclers were hard pressed to define the relationship. A fourth cousin was the best they could come up with, which explained why they didn't resemble each other at all. But that was fine. Things would have been very awkward if they had been closely related.

"You okay Sora?" Riku questioned him softly and Sora nodded.

"As good as I can be." Kairi was sitting across from him and reached out to gently touch his knee.

"Remember, we're here for you." She said softly and Sora smiled at her. She was the sweetest, most wonderful woman in the world in his opinion. He didn't really regret leaving Axel behind at all now, although he'd wept bitter tears at the time. Kairi and Riku had filled the void in his heart to overflowing. No, Sora wasn't worried about seeing Axel… he just hoped the blood witch had found someone to love.

But he dreaded seeing Cloud again. Roxas and Namine had never understood that his childhood hadn't been as idyllic as theirs. Sometimes blood magic didn't manifest at all unless it was trained for, but sometimes children showed it plainly very young. Sora had been the second type. He'd learned to manipulate the mirror when he was just a little boy and Cloud had caught him playing with it. In retrospect, Sora understood the pain that must have caused him, that his son had the gift he'd so longed to have. But as the child who suddenly could do no right in his father's eyes, he hadn't understood at all. Not in the least.

He was an adult now and a full blood witch, although the noble families didn't refer to themselves by that time. But he had the blood rosette burned onto his shoulderblade and he'd been taught how to use his gift by the best House Zael had to offer. Riku and Kairi both had matching scars, and their heritage came from House Firrana. He and Kairi were a perfect match, when it came to bloodlines and power and best of all, they both loved Riku. Riku wasn't a bad match for Kairi either, since he was very distantly related. So while only Sora and Kairi would officially marry, the blood witch noble families would understand what Riku's matching pendant meant, when the time came.

That was several years off though, and now Sora was confronting his childhood demons. Aeris would quickly understand the nature of his relationship when she saw all three of them together and he doubted she would approve. Sora knew Cloud wouldn't approve, but didn't really care about that anymore. He'd given up looking for his father's love years ago.

"It's just so sad. He had his whole life ahead of him…" Sora murmured, feeling deeply saddened by Roxas' passing. He'd always hoped his little brother might have the blood magic too, but he'd shown no sign of it at all. That didn't necessarily mean much, though, and in the normal course of things he would have been tested when he went off to university. Now they would never know. "I hope mother is managing to cope." It would be very hard on her, losing one of her sons.

"We'll be there to help her." Kairi said, then smiled. "I've been looking forward to meeting your mother." Sora managed a smile at the slight change of topic.

"You'll like her. She's a nice woman." The conversation went on to other things and Sora found his thoughts traveling from Roxas to Axel. Maybe he was lying to himself a little about how he felt. The thought of seeing the redhead again made his stomach tighten a bit, and he wasn't sure why.

Maybe it was because there were so many might have been's between them. Cloud had emphasized and reemphasized to him that he could tell no one about his blood magic, so he hadn't told Axel. Sora wished he had disobeyed. If he had, things could have been different, they could have shared so much more. And instead of depending on letters that his father could intercept they could have used mirrors to talk. Shaking his head, Sora dismissed the thought. It was pointless, he was more than happy with Kairi and Riku. It was just traveling home that was bringing up all the old, unpleasant feelings.

That evaporated a bit, though, once they actually got home. Sora was surprised to see a young, very pregnant woman with strawberry hair working with his mother in the gardens as they pulled up. She stepped back as Aeris ran up to the carriage, smiling, and Sora couldn't help but wonder who she was. She didn't look like a servant.

"Sora! Thank goodness you're here." His mother gave him an impulsive hug and Sora returned it, reflecting on how similar they looked. Roxas looked far more like Cloud. Or rather, he had.

"We got here as quickly as we could, mother." He glanced at the girl curiously. She was frowning slightly at him. "Who is this, mother?" Aeris blinked, remembering.

"Oh! I'm sorry. This is Vidali Paethsdotter." Sora blinked at that. Blood witches from the gypsy kin and wandering families often just used the mother's name followed by dotter or son for a last name. "She and her husband Saen are staying here until the blood witch's house is ready for them." Axel had needed to leave most of his things, and Cloud had some of the servants getting everything in order for them, but they'd been distracted by the funeral.

"Wait, what? What's happened to Axel?" Sora suddenly demanded, surprised at his own concern. Had Axel had an accident? But his mother shook her head.

"He sold his house to Cloud. He had some family living with him and they convinced him to go try his luck elsewhere, together with them. They left the morning of… of the accident." Aeris' eyes brimmed with tears for a moment, before she sniffed, getting herself under control. "Do you… do you want to see him?"

"Please mother." Sora wasn't looking forward to it. He'd heard about the accident and knew it had been bad. But he had to see Roxas, had to see his baby brother, and it was better now than at the funeral. He didn't want to break down in front of everyone. When he was shown the body, though, he got the greatest shock of his life.

"That's – urph!" Riku coughed as Sora jammed an elbow into his belly. Kairi just stared, shocked.

The illusion that was so effective on normal people was completely useless on three powerful blood witches. Instead of the body of a young boy, draped with a shroud to conceal the worst injuries, they saw something that could never be mistaken for human. The features were well done to aide the illusion but it still looked very rough and it was starting to decay a bit around the edges. Sora felt a surge of anger that quickly turned to something deeper and sadder. There could only have been one person who could have done this. But why?

"Thank you mother." Sora said softly as Aeris sniffed, rubbing her eyes. She hadn't noticed Riku's momentary lapse. But then, she probably didn't realize he and Kairi wore the blood rosettes. Riku dyed his hair and Kairi's auburn looked completely natural. "That's all I need." He didn't want to look at this thing anymore.

It took a bit of work, but they managed to get away from Aeris and had a quick consultation in one of the rooms of the mansion. Cloud wasn't home, which was something Sora was thankful for. He didn't want to confront his father right now.

"Sora, that was a golem! And a rather good one too." Riku added thoughtfully. He was very into the mechanics of the blood magic so he'd noticed that right away. Whoever had been leading the ritual had known what they were doing. Sora nodded.

"Axel must have done it, but why?" Had Axel and Roxas become involved? Sora felt almost resentful for a moment, then shoved the feeling away. It had been three years, it would only have been natural for Axel to move on.

"I don't know, but I know who can tell us." Kairi smiled knowingly. "Those two blood witches." Riku's eyes widened and Sora suddenly grinned.

"Kairi, you're right! They must know everything." Vidali and Saen could see through the illusion as well, but they'd said nothing. Clearly they were in on it. "We'll have to corner them later." Sora begrudged every moment wasted, but he was glumly certain he'd be wasting a lot more before this was over. Riku frowned.

"Shouldn't we tell your mother and father?" He was thinking about the funeral as well. If they said nothing, they wouldn't be able to leave until it was over. Sora hesitated then shook his head.

"No. I – I don't know why Roxas has done this. He must have participated. I don't want to ruin it for him if this is what he wants." Sora could understand wanting to get away although this method was really poor. On the other hand, if Roxas really loved Axel what else could he do? Riku pursed his lips and shook his head.

"He's throwing aside all his responsibilities, Sora. It's a disgusting thing to do." Sora winced at Riku's condemnation and glanced at Kairi. She looked a bit ambivalent about it.

"All the same… if he really loves Axel, he would have been in one hell of a spot. And he's not the heir." If Sora had had an older brother to take over things… well, he wasn't sure what he'd have done. But he'd have felt freer to act. Roxas wasn't going to inherit the estates and all the responsibilities that went with them. "And Cloud will go completely around the bend if we tell him. He might kill Axel. We need to speak to Roxas first." If Cloud went after Axel with all the foresters, Sora didn't think he would be able to forgive himself. He might not be in love with Axel anymore but he didn't wish the redhead harm. Riku nodded at that. From what Sora had said he could certainly see his father doing that.

"Alright. We'll have to corner the blood witches later." Decided, the three of them finished putting their clothes away and went to see Aeris again.

Sora winced as he saw his father had arrived. It didn't take very long for Riku and Kairi to both feel a bit edgy in his presence. Cloud's demeanor was impeccable, and if they had been completely normal he would have fooled them. But the blood witches could sense his subtle resentment of his oldest son. Not only that, his attitude to Riku was distinctly cool. Aeris had already figured out their relationship, it seemed, and had told Cloud what she had guessed.

After supper Sora spent some time with Namine, then joined Riku and Kairi to track down the blood witches. They found the two of them in their room. Saen was very surprised as he opened the door to Sora's knock.

"Lord Sora? How can I help you?" His eyes were wary as Sora stepped forward, and Saen stepped back, letting him in. From the expression on his face he would have preferred to refuse them entry but there was no way to do that without being extremely rude. Vidali set aside her mending, looking only puzzled.

"We would like some answers." Sora said softly, looking into Saen's face. He hesitated, then blinked as Riku began stripping off his shirt. The silver hair turned around and there was a gasp from Vidali and a muffled curse from Saen as they both saw the blood rosette. "We all have those. Now, what is going on here?"

"I – I crave your pardon Lord." Saen said, his face slightly grey. Vidali had a hand pressed to her mouth and looked like she might cry. "We had to keep it a secret, we had to, or we'd never have been welcome at a meet again." Saen knew Axel's threat hadn't been an idle one, and now it might be carried out even if it was there fault. "Please, don't tell Lord Cloud we knew!" That would be even worse from being banned from the meets, from their perspective. If Cloud knew the truth they would be put out and they had no money at all. Sora's eyes softened and he nodded.

"I won't tell him you knew. But please, tell us what's happening." With no other option, Saen and Vidali told them everything they knew. The plan Axel, Reno and Effie had hatched to help steal Roxas away… and Roxas part in it as a beginning blood witch. That came as a surprise to Sora. He'd really thought Roxas was probably talentless.

"Thank you." Sora said politely when they were done and watching him anxiously. "Even if we have to tell Cloud, we'll find a way to cover you." That wouldn't be too hard. They could always just claim that Axel and Effie had keyed the spell to fool the blood witches they knew would be there. That was balderdash, but Cloud wouldn't know the difference. "I can't promise anything about Axel, but he probably won't hold it against you." Axel was fairly reasonable and would recognize that it wasn't there fault Sora had the blood magic. Saen and Vidali looked a little reassured as the nobles showed themselves out.

"He meant to leave." Riku said when they were back in their own rooms. "What are we going to do about this, Sora?" It was Sora's family and his decision. Sora thought about it a moment, then sighed.

"I'm not sure Riku. We'll have to think about it." They would have time. Unless they told Cloud, they would have to stay for the funeral. They could have alerted other noble blood witches with the mirrors, but this was a family matter.

Sora would deal with it himself.


	7. Unexpected Red Hairs

Several weeks later.

"Arghlblrgh. Blah." Effie spat onto the ground and Roxas could only agree with her sentiments. They'd finally reached the black fens, and it was about as miserable as Reno had said it would be. Maybe moreso. Axel swore and finally traced a diagram in his blood, setting a spell that would repel the mosquitoes. It only partially worked, but it was better than nothing.

The fens themselves stank. They stank hideously, from accumulated, rotting plant life and the vile sludge it called a bottom. The road leading through the fens was actually a wooden platform road, and it wasn't maintained as carefully as it could be. The horses had to slog through plenty of water and Reno was muttering about their hooves. Everything taken together, the fens were a small slice of hell.

"I can't wait to get out of here." Roxas said feelingly. For the first couple weeks of the trip, he'd almost had fun. He liked riding and he'd quickly gotten used to doing it all day, every day and then having fun with Axel at night. Roxas blushed a little as he thought of that, glancing at Axel, who was drooping a bit in his saddle. Just last night Axel had taken him and it had been wonderful…

The only downside to traveling together had been rather unexpected. Reno and Effie were just as active as him and Axel, and Effie was very vocal. A few times lately, though, she'd been strangely silent and had had faint marks on her face the next day. No one was willing to tell him exactly what was going on with that although Effie had giggled a lot when he asked. Roxas had decided he probably didn't want to know.

"Me either. But we're going to be going through this for at least three days." Reno grunted as he scratched a bug bite. "And that's only if the bridge is passable."

"It might not be?" Roxas was a bit hazy on the geography here. Reno nodded and Axel spoke up.

"I got in touch with Mistra yesterday. She says the river's really high and the bridge hasn't had proper maintenance in a while. There's a ferry, but it's not running. We might have to wait on the bank for a while to make it across." Axel shrugged fatalistically. "At least there's a village right by the bridge. There should be an okay inn, a lot of trade comes through here despite the fens."

"And this is the off season so we'll get good prices." Effie added, trying to find something cheerful in the situation. Reno grunted as his horse whinnied, then kept plodding along. All the horses were in good shape, but they didn't like the fens anymore than their riders.

The next two nights were unpleasant. One was spent in a peat farmers shack, and cost them far too much for the privilege of sleeping on the floor. But it beat the night they had to sleep on a raised hummock and woke up wet and filthy. Spirits were at low ebb after that. Finally, they reached the village by the river.

"Oh god, civilization! Tell me there's a public bath and a laundry. Or fuck, tell me the river is down enough for swimming." Reno said prayerfully as Axel and Roxas looked over the village dubiously. It wasn't much bigger than the little village they'd both grown up in, and they were uncomfortably aware that a lot of the people there hadn't believed in bathing.

Fortunately, they were somewhat in luck. There were public baths, although they were actually just a spot on the bank of the river where a natural rock protrusion made it safe to swim. Laundry was washed there too, and soon everyone was feeling marginally human again.

"Is it just me, or are people looking at us funny?" Roxas said very quietly as they washed their clothes. Axel grimaced, replying just as quietly.

"It's not just you, but I wouldn't call it funny." Roxas winced and nodded. He'd gotten used to shabby treatment, traveling with blood witches but the way the villagers were looking at them now was worse than usual. They seemed openly hostile. A pudgy, red haired woman bustled through over and she got plenty of dirty looks too, but ignored them cheerfully.

"Axel! Hey!" She waved and Axel waved back. Roxas watched curiously as she fetched up, breathing heavily. "Nephew!" His eyes widened as Axel hugged her. This had to be Mistra, although Axel hadn't mentioned that she was his aunt. "Reno!"

"Auntie!" Reno grinned and grabbed Mistra in a hug, almost lifting her off her feet as she laughed. Effie just watched with a smile and laughed as she got her own vigorous hug.

"Effie!" Mistra finished greeting Effie and Roxas almost recoiled as it looked like he was going to get hugged too. But she settled for gripping his hand and pumping it, smiling. "You must be Roxas! Hello and welcome to the family. You all must come stay at my place! I have a stables and the best eel pie this side of the river." Roxas thought he could do without eel pie, but who knew? Maybe it would be good. Axel and the others certainly seemed to like the idea.

"That would be great Mistra. Does this place have a farrier? We'd like someone to take a look at the horses' hooves." Reno was sure it did have someone who took care of that, although how good they would be would be up for debate. But the blood witches could help with any healing necessary. Mistra glanced over at the horses, frowning a bit as she saw they were some pretty ugly nags. There hadn't been much for sale in the village, so Axel had needed to take what he could get.

"You should stay a few days. Your horses need a rest." Mistra said firmly and Axel frowned, wanting to protest. But he and Reno both looked at the horses considering and had to admit that she had a point. There was nothing really wrong with them, but the horses were old and tired. They could use a bit of rest.

"Good idea." Effie said firmly. "I need a rest too." Roxas thought about it a moment and agreed silently. They should be safe enough with Axel and Reno's aunt. Although the way the villagers were looking at them definitely made him nervous. They finished washing their clothing and led the horses to Mistra's house. It turned out to be on the far side of town and had a rather nice garden, despite the fens. Most of the village existed on fishing, the traders that came through part of the year, and peat collecting. This wasn't good farmland. Soon the horses were turned out in the pasture, safely behind a fence with Mistra's younger gelding. Axel quickly checked the water trough and was pleased to see it was full and clean. But then, that wasn't surprising. Mistra took good care of her horse. There was a chicken coup and plenty of young hens scratching around, protected and confined by magical wards that wouldn't let predators reach them. Mistra looked them over for a moment.

"Let's have chicken for supper." She made a beeline for one of the more elderly birds, expertly grabbed her and lifting the protesting, squawking chicken. "Darlings, could you go peel some vegetables to go with this? Thank you ever so much!" Roxas smiled, already feeling at home as they all piled inside, leaving the chicken to Mistra and getting everything else ready. He set the table as Reno and Effie prepared the vegetables and Axel put together some biscuits. Soon there were good smells of home cooking, although nothing would be done for hours, which would be perfect for supper.

"So Mistra, what's with the villagers?" Reno asked bluntly as she came back in with a freshly plucked, gutted chicken to roast. "This is pretty intense even for blood witches." Roxas was glad Reno had asked, he didn't know Mistra well enough to feel comfortable asking that kind of question. But he was sure this wasn't normal. The feeling here was so bad that if Mistra hadn't been living here and the horses weren't exhausted, they would have ridden past without stopping. Mistra frowned as she put the chicken and vegetables in the oven.

"Oh, well… there's something very odd going on, but I really don't have any idea what it is." She frowned, then smiled as Axel took the biscuits out of the oven. "Why thank you! Well… what's been happening is that young men and women go missing. They come wandering back several days later with no recollection of where they've been but they're different. So… unemotional." Roxas blinked as Mistra tried to find words to describe it. "They just don't seem to care anymore. They can't be counted on for anything. There was one girl, she was a lovely child, the oldest and perfectly dependable. But after she came back she almost let the baby drown in the bathtub and wasn't the least remorseful."

"That's really weird." Axel said with a frown, putting the biscuits onto a plate and bringing them out the table, before smiling and tossing one to Roxas. Roxas smiled back gratefully before buttering it. It had been a long time since lunch and he was still a teenager. He tended to need a bit more food than the adults. "I've never heard of anything like it before. They're blaming you?" That wasn't much of a stretch. People were always willing to blame blood witches for anything uncanny. Mistra shook her hair back, annoyed.

"Apparently! Which is just stupid and the mayor and the squire know it. Blood magic doesn't even work that way. What kind of rogue blood witch would leave them alive?" Mistra shook her head. "I can't find out what's wrong with them though. Every test I do says they're fine. It's a mystery… I've asked the squire to send for help to the King but he doesn't want to. It's always so delicate." The others just nodded but Roxas felt confused.

"I'm sorry, I don't understand?" He asked tentatively and Mistra smiled at him brilliantly.

"I mean the blood witch noble families, sweety. They have some really powerful blood witches and could afford to come, not like the other strong witches I know. But then they'd have to hide their magic from the villagers and that's a pain. Still, I wish he were willing to do it. I'm good but clearly not good enough." A line appeared between her eyes as she thought about that, but then she shook off the mood. "But don't worry about my problems. How has your trip been?"

"Very good Auntie." Axel said with a smile. "Well, except for the bugs, but what can you do?" Soon everyone was talking and swapping stories. Then Reno got out his deck of cards and they were playing a lively game of hearts as they waited for the chicken to cook. They started talking about the blood magic as well as the state of the Kingdom and Roxas could participate in at least some of that. And the talk about the blood magic was fascinating. Axel had been giving him lessons every chance he could, and Roxas thought he was doing well, but he was showing no sign of red in his hair. That was a bit odd and worried him slightly. What if he was less powerful than Reno? He'd never wear the blood rosette. But… if that was the case, it wouldn't be the end of the world. He could still make designs for the tattoos.

"Foods ready!" Mistra pulled out the chicken, surrounded by carrots and potatoes, and divided it up. Along with the biscuits it was a good, filling meal and soon everyone was ready for bed. Although not sleep.

"Mmm, Axel." Roxas groaned in pleasure as Axel's nimble, warm, calloused fingers slid over his bare skin. Then he blinked as he suddenly heard a low laugh from the redhead. "Hmm?"

"Check it out Roxy." Axel was smiling in gentle amusement as he slowly stroked Roxas' erection, making the blonde gasp. "I think I've found your red hair."

"Huh?" For a moment Roxas couldn't figure out what Axel was referring to. Then realization set in and he glanced down, going pale. "You're kidding!" They still had a candle lit… they wanted to see each other… and the flickering light was bright enough to reveal what had happened. "My _crotch_ hair?!?"

"Yep." Axel laughed, giving him a deep, passionate kiss. "All of it too. Don't tell Reno, or you'll have a horrible nickname, I guarantee it." Roxas wavered between amusement and outrage, and amusement finally won. What could you do but laugh?

"I won't." He was sure Reno would do that, and Effie too for that matter. Roxas caught Axel's lips in a deep, passionate kiss. "Mmm… make love to me, Axel." He wanted to do this, wanted to feel the redhead inside him.

"Gladly." Axel breathed, returning his kiss with interest and exploring Roxas' soft skin. No matter how many times he did this, it was always amazing, the way Roxas felt and the cute way he moaned when Axel stroked him in just the way he liked. And Roxas wasn't just sitting back and taking it, oh no, his hands were everywhere too, exploring Axel and finding all the sensitive spots. Axel slowly opened the blonde, spreading his legs and slowly, carefully going inside. "Roxas, ah, you're so… amazing…" Axel explored Roxas throat, nipping the soft skin as he began to thrust, taking the blonde in a steady rhythm. Roxas moaned in pleasure and wrapped his legs firmly around Axel's waist, pulling him closer and deepening the penetration.

"Axel!" Roxas was unaware of his cry as he raked his nails over Axel's shoulders, raising a few thing lines of blood. The sting was wonderful and Axel bit Roxas' shoulder, hard, as he pounded the blonde into the bed, speeding the rhythm. The sex turned hard and intense, fierce, and Roxas suddenly released with a loud cry, his hips lifting and back arching as his seed splattered them both. Axel released a moment later with a sound that sent shivers down Roxas' back, it was so primitive and _sexy_. They lay together for a long moment before Axel slowly pulled away, smiling and giving him a gentle kiss. Roxas shifted, feeling a little sore from the intense coupling but not worried. They didn't have to ride the next day. "Axel, I love you so much." He murmured in the redhead's ear, and Axel's smile was warm as he kissed Roxas on the forehead.

"I love you too Roxas." Axel was sure now that this was going to last, and he was glad.

He never wanted to be without Roxas.

* * *

"Everyone!" Axel blinked, looking up from his porridge as Mistra waved a wooden spoon. It was early morning and she had made oat porridge with honey and milk. "While I love having you all here, I have a few house rules. Well, one house rule. And that is do NOT keep me up at night. Have sex during the day, gag each other, I don't care but please no more screaming. I can handle the thumping." Axel choked as Roxas blushed. Reno laughed as Effie put on a naughty grin. "Children. You make me wish my husband was still here…" Mistra didn't seem too upset, though, eating her porridge with good cheer.

Soon they were out checking the horses over and everyone was pitching in bathing and grooming them. Mistra frowned as she examined one of the horses very carefully, a bay mare. She was using magic as well as eyesight and found something interesting.

"Axel, child? Did you know this horse is pregnant?" Axel blinked and stared.

"What? She couldn't be! All the others are geldings and mares." He was dead sure of that. Reno and Roxas had geldings and Effie had a mare. Mistra shrugged. "Damn that bitch who sold her! She must have been bred right before we got her." That would explain why it wasn't obvious now except to blood witch tests. "What should we do? Can she still be ridden?" Axel didn't really know a lot about horses beyond basic care. Mistra rolled her eyes.

"She's perfectly safe to be ridden. It's actually much better if you do ride her, as long as she's not having any difficulties. And you can tell that." Axel nodded. The blood magic was great for detecting pain in animals. "The question is, what will you do with the foal?"

"Oh, arrrgh." Axel didn't like that thought at all. The mare wasn't a good horse and they were heading to a seaside town. Trying to sell a pregnant mare of this quality was a bit like trying to sell a mare with a disease. No one would want her and they'd probably end up caring for her and the foal until it was weaned. Although Roxas probably knew enough about horses to at least train the foal. Axel was aware they could turn into little monsters if left unhandled, but he really knew nothing about how to train a foal. "Do you think we can make her miscarry?" Blood witches didn't do abortions per se, but if a woman thought she might be pregnant and it was very early they could do a gentle alteration to make her cycle again. It wasn't something talked about since premarital sex wasn't supposed to happen, but mothers quietly passed the knowledge on to daughters. Forcing a miscarriage, though, was much harder on the body. Mistra pursed her lips and finally shook her head.

"She's too old Axel. That could really hurt her." Miscarriages could happen naturally but forcing the process was invasive and had dozens of possible consequences, which was why blood witches would never do it to a human woman. Of course, a horse was a different matter, but still. "I think she's over twenty years old. I know it's a trial, but you might want to let her have it. There's a decent chance she could die if we force the miscarriage." Axel sighed and rubbed his head.

"Great. Well, I suppose we'll just have to worry about it later. How are the others?" They couldn't afford to lose the mare right now so they'd just have to deal with it when the time came.

"Not too good. They urgently need the farrier, except the roan. Where did you get them?" Mistra was a little appalled by the horses condition, but then, she was an expert rider. Her little mare was a well-bred filly raised on her own property.

"Here, there and everywhere." Axel said dryly. "We bought them from the village farmers. They were the only ones we could find that weren't drafts." Riding horses were in short supply in the village and not very well tended. "The prices weren't too bad."

"I daresay the villagers were too embarrassed to charge you a lot for this sorry collection of nags. The youngest is thirteen and I think the oldest is thirty!" Mistra glanced over the grey gelding she thought was the oldest. "Although he's in good shape for thirty. Well, you're definitely staying a couple of days." She wasn't going to let them leave until she was certain the horses were ready for the rest of the trip. Axel looked like he wanted to protest, but Roxas looked up from where he was grooming a horse, grinning.

"Yes auntie!" He chirped and Mistra laughed.

"Why, some respect! You could learn something from him Axel." She took the brush from Roxas, making him blink. "Go, the two of you, learn some blood magic. We can take care of this." Axel blinked and suddenly smiled.

"Hey, she's right. This is a perfect time to give you some real lessons Roxy." When else would they have leisure for some serious blood magic?

It was time to make the most of it.


End file.
